I have to Marry Whom?
by Hydrochloric Cutie
Summary: There is a new marriage law out in the wizarding world and no one is happy about it.
1. Chapter 1

I have to Marry Whom?

Prologue

This newest magical decree has been hereby enacted by the Ministry of Magic: London on this July the 1st, 2000.

Due to the severe decrease in wizarding population as an after-effect from the second wizarding war, all wizards and witches from the ages of 18-50 are required to marry. Due an increase if squib population, several stipulations are as follows:

A. There is to be no pureblood marriages to other purebloods. This was the main cause of squib production.

B. There is to be no Muggle-born to Muggle-born marriages.

C. All persons affected by this new decree must be married to the fullest extent of the law within six months of this ordinance

*Failure to comply will result in either banishment from the wizarding world for a minimum of five years or a year's sentence in Azkaban prison.

D. A child must be conceived or born by the two year marker on the marriage.

*The act of consummation must be performed at the minimum of one time a month within the two days of peak ovulation/fertility for the first two years.

*After two years, one consummation every six months is required.

*Subsequently if a child is not conceived by the allotted time, a medical exam to check for fertility or sterility will be performed.

i. In a result of sterilization on either part will result in an option for divorce

ii. Fertile members of the marriage must be re-married within six months of the finalized divorce.

*The ministry-provided wedding bands will alert a ministry official if you have broken any parts of this decree. Punishment will be according to the crimes.

E. You must remain married for a minimum of five years before divorce can be applied for

F. If you are not married within the allotted six months, your name will then be submitted to the ministry

*Subsequently, you will be paired with someone the ministry deems a match

G. Exceptions include:Sterility on either account

i. Must by known and documented at a wizarding hospital before the marriage takes place

If you are already engaged and your wedding date is set with the ministry outside the allotted six months. If you are outside the age limit. You may marry someone who is either two years outside the age limit, younger or older. If the person is younger, parental consent must be obtained.

H. If you have been recently widowed (within the past year) then there is one year allotted for bereavement. After the allotted year, there is a six month period in which they must re-marry. If there is two or more children, the requirement to get re-married is null.

I. Petitions may be submitted to the ministry for a particular witch or wizard.

We here at the ministry believe that this new decree will help our populous thrive once again.

Signed and Approved,

Rufus Scrimgeour

Minister of Magic

I have to Marry Whom?


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 1: The Order Meeting.

"I hereby call this meeting of the Order of the Phoenix on this July 17th to order," Albus Dumbledore announced to the whole kitchen at number 12 Grimmauld Place. He stood at the head of the long, scrubwood table located in the basement kitchen, his eyes twinkling. Many of the various order members were present and standing around or sitting at the long table: Minerva McGonagall, who barely survived the cutting hex thrown at her at the final battle 2 months ago; Molly Weasley, heralded fighter who killed Bellatrix Lestrange after a fit of cursing at her; Arthur Weasley, recently promoted to Head of his current department as well as the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office; Bill and Fleur Weasley, who both got some much needed revenge of Fenrir Greyback; Charlie Weasley, on leave from Romania; Percy Weasley, who had apologized for being an ass for the past year and was welcomed back in the family; Fred and George Weasley, who had tricked the Death Eaters as well as everyone else with the Fainting Fancies; Ron Weasley; Hermione Granger; Harry Potter; Ginny Weasley; Sirius Black, who the veil had spat back out the day after the ministry battle; Remus Lupin, who managed to evade the killing curse three times; Nymphadora Tonks, who was healed by Remus when a cutting hex sliced her legs wide open; and Hestia Jones, who had just returned from her place at the hiding spot of the Dursley family. "Any new reports?"

"The Dursley's imprisonment… er, I mean protection, has ended," Hestia snickered. "They're back home now, and I've never been happier."

"I always knew they were horrible," Sirius said gruffly.

"It was bad enough checking in on them twice a day," she said shivering in disgust. "But the son kept hitting on me each time I would go there."

"Any other new business?" Albus asked.

"What about the new marriage law we've all been hearing about?" Hermione asked.

"Ah yes, that was proposed just over two weeks ago and I've been waiting until this meeting to have it discussed. Several things will need to happen," he informed the group. "There are a few pressing matters."

"So they're serious, Albus?" Molly asked, worry and fear for her children in her eyes.

"I'm afraid so," he nodded grimly. "I need to know if anyone here is currently seeing someone. This will be much easier for us to pair people off if they are already involved with someone." Several people raised their hands, so Albus just went around the table. "Okay Remus, you first."

"Well, I believe its obvious enough," the werewolf said. "Nymphadora and I actually eloped before the battle."

"And I'm pregnant," she said cheerily.

"You're what?" Remus asked dumbfounded.

"I'm pregnant, around three months."

"Why the bloody hell did you fight?" Sirius cried, admonishing his little cousin. "I didn't even let Hestia fight."

"Hestia's pregnant?" Molly cried. "You shouldn't be apparating."

"It's fine until the 6th month," Sirius replied.

"How do you know?" both Molly and Hestia asked.

"I er… well, I remember when Lily was having Harry," he said. "When ever James or I were off on a mission, we were taking turns staying with her. I had to be ready incase she went into labor or something."

"Well congratulations to both of the new happy couples. I promise we'll all wrap this up quickly once everyone is taken care of, so we can really celebrate," Albus iterated cheerily. "Percy?"

"I've been dating Penelope Clearwater since Hogwarts, and I've a ring, but I've just been working to pluck up enough courage to ask her. I think I'll do it this week."

"Splendid," Dumbledore praised. "Fred? George?"

"I actually proposed to Angelina after the battle, Mum and Dad were there," Fred informed the group.

"And I used to date Alicia Spinnett, and we've been off and on for the past like three years. We're on again now…" George trailed off.

"Excellent! What about you Ronald?"

"Er, well," he stammered.

"Go on, tell them," Hermione urged.

"Alright, I've been seeing Lisa Turpin," Ron said, blushing.

"Wonderful, she's a sensible girl, a Ravenclaw isn't she?" Ron nodded. "Perfect. Harry?"

"Well, I've been dating someone for the past two years," Harry said, almost evading the question.

"Who is it?" Remus asked, quite shocked.

"Cor blimey, I didn't know yeh got yerself a bird!" Sirius exclaimed, his head resting on Hestia's shoulder, who was sitting on his lap. The Weasley's were just as shocked.

"Er, well, I've been dating Ginny," Harry said, tensing up, waiting for the onslaught from the Weasley men.

"Excellent!" Albus said.

"So wait, no one is upset by this?" Harry asked.

"Not in the slightest, you two were made for each other," Arthur said. "But you and I will still be having a talk later."

"Yes sir," Harry replied meekly.

"What's up with these Potter men and their red heads?" Sirius joked. Remus nodded his head in approval of Sirius' observation.

"Now onto our real problem," Albus prompted. "Hermione, we've received several petitions for your hand already."

"Who would want to marry me?" she puzzled.

"Well, Lucius Malfoy for one, because Narcissa did die two weeks ago in St. Mungo's. A few other Death Eaters did put their names in as well, just to spite us. But little did they know that we put in a name of our own, one that will surely win out against the others."

"Who?" Hermione asked eagerly, wanting to be as far away from those Death Eater connections as possible.

"Charlie Weasley," Albus proclaimed.

"What?" Minerva, Molly, and Hermione exclaimed.

"What else can I honestly do for the Order? I feel useful now," Charlie reasoned.

"How could you want to be married to me?" Hermione admonished.

"Well, from what I know of you, you're smart, kind, and very nice," Charlie shrugged. "Plus, it'll be a new adventure for the both of us."

"Now that all business is taken care of, on to the celebrations!" Albus announced cheerily. "Meeting adjourned.

"Hermione? May I speak with you a moment, up in the parlor?" Charlie asked.

"Sure," she replied, getting up from the table as Sirius summoned butterbeers for the whole group. They each grabbed a bottle and walked upstairs. Once they reached the parlor, Charlie shit the door and sealed it.

"I really wouldn't want my mother barging in on us," he said, answering her unasked question. "I'm 28, I don't really need a chaperone anymore."

"I can't believe this is happening," Hermione sighed, sitting down on the forest green couch.

"Would it be that bad, being married to me?" Charlie asked, being completely serious. He stood in front of her, his hands shoved in his pockets.

"No, Charlie, of course not," she replied hastily. "Its just, I can't believe the Ministry is forcing people to marry is all."

"So you wouldn't be upset being stuck with me for the next five years?"

"Why only five?"

"That's how long you have to be married for before you can file for divorce," he iterated.

"Who says I won't just want to stay married to you?" she teased, hoping the reason for bringing that up was that he couldn't stand to be married to her for much longer than that.

"Seriously?" he prompted.

"If we have to procreate, then I would like to stay together for the sake of the child," she said seriously.

"Better make that children," Charlie said sheepishly. "Weasley family trait."

"Oh," was all she could say. She couldn't imagine having seven kids like Molly.

"Look, I wish this could be easier on you, but it really isn't," he said, taking the seat next to her.

"Well you're not hard on the eyes, by any stretch of the imagination," Hermione said boldly, blushing. "I guess it won't be like pulling teeth to sleep with you. But me on the other hand…"

"What's 'pulling teeth'?" he asked.

"Whoops! Muggle saying, sorry. Pulling teeth is very painful," she informed him.

"Well its definitely not pulling teeth to sleep with you," she said, suggestive look in his eye.

"Oh," she said, surprised. "I'm nothing special really, overweight is all."

"Not by any means. You're just curvy," he said, leaning over to brush the hair away from the ear closest to him. "I happen to like curvy women."

His timbre voice sent shivers down her spine, filling her with a sensation close to arousal. "I-I guess that's good th-then," she managed to stutter out.

"Good, now, would you like to come to my house for dinner tomorrow night?"

"Okay."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 2: The first date

Hermione, as well as Harry and Ron, still lived in number 12 Grimmauld Place with Harry's godfather Sirius Black. She woke up in her normal bed at noon the next day, yawning and stretching, completely forgetting about everything said yesterday. Suddenly her fire place roared to life and turned a neon green. Hermione yelped in fright and fumbled for her wand. When the fire turned back to a normal color and she realized that no one was coming out, she let out a sigh. A piece of parchment flew out of the grate and floated directly in front of her. It unfurled itself and read itself in Charlie's baritone voice: "I was just reminding you about our dinner date tonight, you seemed like you were ready to forget about the whole thing when I left. Feel free to floo over any time between five and six. Jeans and your favorite t-shirt is required, as well as a bathing suit and apparel (bikini's are most preferable). Feel free to spend the night. The floo address is Dragon's Keep.

Love your future husband,

Charlie"

"Sweet Merlin," she sighed, sinking back onto her pillows. "He is so thoughtful."

After re-reading his letter, she got up and went down to the kitchen to get herself a spot of lunch. Sirius was down in the basement as well, fixing himself a ham sandwich. "Morning Mione, how ya feeling?" he asked.

"Still a bit overwhelmed, to be honest," she sighed, walking to the counter to cut herself some bread. "I mean, I'm only nineteen. I really don't need this."

"Hey, I'm only thirty-eight, I don't need this either," he joked. "But honestly I think I'm really ready to settle down now. Hestia being pregnant is just the icing on top of the cake."

"When did you two start seeing one another?"

"Oh wow, um, I think it started while we were back in school," Sirius pondered. "But I guess everything was rekindled when she had to live here while the Dursley's were in hiding."

"That's sweet," Hermione sighed.

"Don't worry, honey, you and Charlie will get on famously, I'm sure of it," he soothed, putting an arm around her shoulders.

"But how can I be happy. I'm being forced to marry someone I barely know," she cried. "My parents aren't even here to help me out with all of this. I mean, what if Charlie and I get into a spat. I can't go tell Molly anymore, she'll be my mother in law, and she'll be the one to take his side on everything."

"You could always come to me you know," Sirius suggested.

"Oh, I couldn't burden you with that," she said.

"Please, I sit around here all day. I can't exactly go out and get a job because of my past, no matter if I am pardoned or not," he reasoned. "Even with the baby on the way, I will always have time for you, my sweet."

"You have no idea how much that means to me," Hermione said, letting out a sigh of relief. "I have just one more thing to ask you."

"Go ahead."

"Would you walk me down the aisle at my wedding?"

"Really?" he asked. She nodded. "I would be greatly honored."

"Thank you so much," Hermione said, turning to hug Sirius. "I feel so much better now."

"No problem," he shrugged. "So what are you gonna do on your date?"

"I know there's dinner. But he also told me to bring a bathing suit," Hermione iterated. "I may just spend the night out there if I get too tired out swimming."

"Just be careful," he warned. She nodded and returned to making her sandwich.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

"Harry! Ron! Sirius! I'm leaving!" Hermione cried out at 5:15. "I don't know if I will be back tonight. See you all tomorrow!"

"Wait!" she heard all three men's voices call out from their various places around the large house. All three ran down the stairs, careful not to run into each other.

"Where are you going?" Harry and Ron asked.

"Be careful," Sirius said at the same time.

"I have a dinner date with Charlie tonight," Hermione told her two best friends.

"Have fun then," Harry said.

"Be careful Mione, he's a playboy," Ron warned. She giggled in response and kissed all three men on the cheek.

She turned and stepped into the floo. "The Dragon's Keep!" she shouted and was whisked away to Charlie's house in Romania. He saw the fire glow green and got up to greet his visitor. Hermione fell out of the floo, making Charlie reach out to catch her.

"Not too good with the floo yet, I take it?" he chuckled good naturedly.

"Haha Charlie, can you put me down now?" she prompted, slightly embarrassed at her ineptitude.

"Surely," he agrees as he put her lightly back on her feet. He stood there and took in her appearance: she magically straightened her hair, pulling it up in a ponytail; her make-up was simple, peach eyeshadow and clear mascara, with a slight shine on her lips from her chapstick; her t-shirt was very form fitting, white with hamburgers all over it; the jeans she wore accentuated the butt she had, not over large, but just the perfect shape for her body; and she wore flip flops (Charlie absolutely loved flip flops on a girl). "I'm glad to see you wore something appropriate."

"Well I'm happy you don't find my shirt completely childish," she said.

"Nah," he said, beckoning her to follow him. "We'll be eating out on the west lawn, a sunset dinner."

"How romantic," she replied, following him out into his backyard. The yard was huge and there was a picnic blanket next to a fairly large pond. "This is beautiful."

"This is really the only reason I got the house in the first place. I loved the back yard so much. The house was a complete mess, I had to renovate the entire thing," Charlie informed her.

"Well, you're just a handy person to have around," she teased.

"Damn right," he snorted. "This house is in a Muggle town, so I had to renovate like them. It took nearly two years to finish everything. Damn Muggles are nosy."

"They do tend to be like that," she chuckled.

"Would you care to sit and eat with me?"

"Certainly," Hermione said, kicking her shoes off and sinking down onto the blanket, taking in Charlie's appearance: he wore his old Hogwarts Quittitch shirt, it was gray and there was a faded Gryffindor crest on the chest; his jeans were light blue and getting threadbare; he too wore flip flops, showing off his pale feet. He plopped himself down across from her, waving his hand at the basket next to them. Food came floating out and settled on the blanket: BLT sandwiches, potatoe chips, cole slaw, pickles and butterbeers.

"Mmm, BLT, my favorite, how'd you know?"

"Er, well, I asked Sirius what you're favorite foods were," he admitted sheepishly.

"I can't believe they paid that much attention," she mused.

"Okay, let the getting to know each other begin," he said, rubbing his hands together. "Lets just go back and forth asking questions to each other."

"Okay, sounds fair, what's your favorite color?" she asked as she picked up a BLT sandwich.

"Brown, actually," he replied before popping a chip into his mouth. "Favorite memory from before Hogwarts."

"Wow, tough one." She took a bite of her sandwich. "I'd have to day when I was 8. this boy, David Bradley, was always making fun of me; mainly because I was always reading. Finally he pushed me, and took away my book. I hauled off and punched him in the nose. It bled, and later I found out that I had broken it. My parents were so proud that I stood up for myself but since the kid told the head of my school, I was suspended for a week."

"I can't believe you hit someone," Charlie mused.

"Three people really," Hermione said fondly.

"I've got to hear this," he prompted.

"Nope, cause it's my turn to ask you a question," she teased. "Um… who was the first girl you kissed?"

"Oh, well that's easy, Audrina Clearwater, Penelope's older sister. Her, Tonks, and I were best friends in Gryffindor. Tonks dared me the first year we were in school together."

"Well that's certainly odd, I'd never picture you being friends with her. You seem so well put together, suave and debonair. She was always so clumsy."

"I guess you just never knew me when I was younger," Charlie let out a breath, running his fingers through his straight auburn hair. "I was rather clumsy as well. Bill kinda guided me along but I still have my moments."

"I look forward to seeing those moments," Hermione said sincerely.

"Merlin help you then," he chuckled. "Now I want to hear about those two other people you punched."

"Sheesh, I guess I have to now. The first one was Draco Malfoy in third year. He was insulting Hagrid. He was the one who pretty much got the ministry to go execute Buckbeak, Sirius' hippogriff. I just got so mad, and I slapped him across the face. I also hit Viktor because he was trying to get me to go farther than I wanted to go."

"When was that?"

"I went to visit him the summer between fifth and sixth year. That's when I fell out of the floo, looking more disheveled than normal," she said softly. "I was quite upset to hear that he was killed. I feel guilty I suppose…"

"You have nothing to feel guilty about," he said firmly, taking her hand in his. They sat there for a few minutes in silence, eating the dinner that Charlie prepared.

"So which side of the bed do you like sleeping on?" she asked quietly, her eyes meeting his.

"Interesting," Charlie mused, munching on a potato chip. "I sleep on the left side, what about you?"

"It's perfect, I sleep on the right," she chuckled. "Mmm, I can't really think of a good question. Um… What's your favorite sex position?"

"Tough one, so many to choose from but to answer your question, I need to know if you're a virgin."

"I am," she confirmed.

"Okay, well for you, at first, the bed is my favorite with me on top, but when our relationship progresses, rough and tumble is more my style. If it were up to me right now, I would take you right up against the back wall."

"Well that's certainly interesting," she said thoughtfully. "I guess I've never thought about it before."

"Hey, why don't we finish our dinner then hop in the pond. Its' heated."

"Sure," she said warily. Charlie would now see her in her bathing suit, her only bikini. He was not going to want to marry her chubby self.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 3 The First Date part 2

Hermione Granger, ex-Head Girl, brightest witch of the age stood in Charlie Weasley's bathroom, near to hyperventilation because her new bikini seemed to be too small for her. The suit was brown, with a crochet overlay, which looked rather nice on her, but she had filled out since she wore it last. 'Okay, I can do this, I am confident young woman. I've fought Voldemort before, for Merlin's sake. I can face my future husband in a bathing suit,' she thought.

"You know you're speaking out loud, right?" Charlie called through the door.

"Shite," she swore under her breath. "Hang on, I'll be out in a moment." Hermione looked in the mirror one more time, took a deep breath and wrapped the towel around her torso. She walked out of the room and was met by Charlie, who was wearing dark blue trunks and his t-shirt.

"You all ready now?" he teased.

"Ready as I will ever be," she sighed and followed him out of the house. He approached the pond and stripped his shirt off. Hermione just stood there, staring at his chest, it took all her mental coaxing not to swoon at the sight of it.

"You okay there? Or do you just like the view?" he teased, walking back to where she was. "I showed you mine, now show me yours."

She nodded nervously, and carefully unwrapped the towel. His eyes widened out of shock when he saw her body revealed. True, she was slightly thicker than the other girls she hung around with, but he saw it as more places to put his hands, more of her to love. The bikini was rather skimpy, only two triangles covering her succulent breast, forming a perfect amount of cleavage. The bottoms rode low on her hips, which were visible, and caused her arse to look even fuller than it did in the jeans.

"Mmm, perfect," he murmured, pulling her closer for a hug. The feeling of their bare stomach touching sent a shock through her system. He felt it too because he pulled away and looked down at her. "Care for a swim?"

"S-sure," she stammered. He led her over to the pond, one hand splayed against her lower back. The water was warmed, and smelled faintly of cinnamon. Hermione let out a soft moan as she slipped completely under the water. He chuckled when she resurfaced. "What?"

"I'm so good, I don't even have to touch you and you start moaning," he chuckled. Her face turned a faint shade of pink as she blushed.

"Don't tease me," she admonished playfully.

"But you're such a nice target," he insisted.

"Hey, what's that?" Hermione asked, noticing a black marking on his shoulder that she hadn't seen before.

"What?"

"That black smudge," she said, pointing to his shoulder. She swam closer to him and pointed to it.

"Oh, my tat?" he asked, turning around and showing her the Chinese fireball dragon that covered nearly his entire back.

"Oh wow," she breathed, her fingers caressing parts of the dragon. "Where'd you get it?"

"Muggle shop in the next town over," he said. "I drew it up and let them put in on. They thought I just wanted a crazy looking dragon, didn't know they were actually real."

"Out of all your siblings, I figured you'd be the one with something like this," she mused.

"Actually, I'm not the only one," he smirked.

"So what do the others have?"

"Well, Bill has a welsh green on his upper right shoulder," Charlie started. "Percy actually has Penny's name on his left forearm. Fred and George both have ones with stars with WWW in the middle, they just cover them up when they were shorts so mum won't notice. And the younger two are thinking about getting ones."

"What did they want?" Hermione asked, her thoughts still reeling from who already had tattoos where.

"Ron wants a Norwegian Ridgeback across his shoulders, and Ginny wants Harry's name and the date they started dating across her lower back, but now I think she's going to want their wedding date there," Charlie thought aloud.

"Interesting."

"Well, what about you? You ever want to get a tat?" he asked, turning back around to face her.

"Not really, I mean, a butterfly on my shoulder would be cute," she admitted shyly.

"Muggle or Magical?" he asked.

"There's magical tattoos?"

"Yeah, a friend of mine down at the reserve does them as a side business," Charlie said. "They move, but the Muggles can't tell if they see them."

"That sounds so cool!" she said brightly.

"Second date?" he chuckled, swimming closer to her. Charlie spun her around.

"Mm, maybe," she replied, her voice sounding a bit huskier after he wrapped his arm around her middle, moving her wet hair out of the way.

"Right here?" he asked, trailing his lips across her left shoulder.

"Other shoulder," she prompted. He laughed deeply as he trailed his lips across the nape of her neck to the other shoulder. "Right there."

"Perfect," he murmured, moving her hair to the other side as he kissed her neck, just behind her ear. She tilted her neck in such a way so he could lavish the area with more kisses; and lavish he did.

"Mm, Charlie?"

"Hmm?" he asked as she pulled away from him and turned around.

"I want to kiss you properly," she said simply. He grinned at her before pulling her closer once more.

"Then I'll just have to remedy that then, now won't I?" he replied before placing his lips gently on hers. This wasn't her first Weasley kiss – once with Fred on a bet (she thought Viktor was going to be Cedric in the Triwizard Tournament), and once with Percy on a dare – but none of those compared to this one.

His lips were full, pressing firmly against hers, letting her feel his dominant side. Her arms wrapped around his neck in an effort to draw herself closer to him. She nearly melted when their tongues met. It was as if he knew exactly how to kiss her, exactly how to make her react to him. As soon as their oxygen supply ran low, they broke away from their kiss. They stood there, breathing heavily and staring into each others eyes.

"You're gonna be the death of me, witch," he murmured.

"I believe **you're **gonnna be the death of me," she teased back.

"So, who was your first kiss?" Charlie asked, getting back to the game.

"Um, Fred actually," she said, blushing heavily again.

"What?" Charlie laughed. "Sneakin' 'round with my brothers now? How did that happen?"

"Oh, well, I lost a bet," Hermione replied. "I said Viktor was going to beat Cedric in the Triwizard Tournament, in the second task at least. If I lost I had to kiss him, but if he lost, he had to give me a foot rub."

"That sounds like Fred," he muttered. "So, you get with any more of my brothers?"

"Everyone thought I was with Ron for the longest time but we all know that wasn't true. But, um, I was dared to kiss Percy when I was a third year."

"That it?" he said, with mock exasperation.

"Yeah," she said cheerily. "Okay, you've had like three questions, now I get three."

"Alright then," he conceded. She lifted herself up and floated on her back.

"So why did you want to be a dragon trainer?"

"Breaking out the big guns now, aren't you? Alright then, I've always been interested in Magical Creatures. Even as a first year, I was helping Professor Kettleburn with his classes. Then I managed to make friends with Hagrid. He used to always go on about dragons. I guess the idea was just implanted in my mind. I researched them and got in contact with the reserve here. They were willing to take me in, straight out of Hogwarts."

"Hagrid still goes on about dragons," Hermione muttered. "Now, why Romania?"

"I had gotten in touch with three other reserves, this one, one in Ireland, and on dear the coast of Denmark. They looked at the fact that I was 18 and they turned me away. They didn't want me because I didn't have any practical experience. I'd done my NEWT paper on Dragons, how to take care of them from egg to full grown. That paper was sent to the reserves, and Romania was the only one who thought that I might be worth training. Now the other reserves are always offering my jobs, but I turn them down."

"Deep stuff. And now something less involved," she said simply. "Where would I sleep if I spend the night?"

"I have a guest bedm if you'd be more comfortable."

"I tend to get lonely at night, and I didn't pack my teddy bear," she teased flirtatiously.

"I guess I'll just have to be a replacement then," Charlie teased back.

"Sounds good to me," she giggled, but yelped when he pulled her floating body and pulled her into a sweet kiss. He was cradling the back of her head, as if she would break.

They swam around for a little while, Charlie throwing her about every once in a while. But soon, darkness befell them. There were no outside light so they had to bring their date indoors. The weather had cooled down so they went in to put their clothes on and meet back in the kitchen for tea. "Do you want to get a shower?" he asked as they finished their tea.

"With you?" she asked, shocked.

"As much as I would like that, I will be a gentleman and let you get one first," he teased.

"Alright then," she said cheerfully. He showed her the shower and where he kept the towels. Hermione stripped her wet clothes off and stepped under the hot stream. As she washed her hair, a thought hit her. 'Would he expect anything from me?' After she finished her shower, Charlie got his real quick, giving a wolf-whistle when he saw her only in a towel. His room was simple, only one color at varying shades: brown. They bed was a king, with q tumult of throw pillows; which she knew they would end up having a large pillow fight one night.

She quickly got her pajamas out of her bag and donned them: Ron's old Cannon's bottoms, and one of Charlie's old Quidditch t-shirts that he'd left at the Burrow. Having completely forgot about the previous owner of the shirt, and the fact that she was going to sleep in the same bed as him, she knelt down to re-arrange the things in her bag. Charlie entered the room while she was out of sight, so he dropped the towel and slipped on his sleep pants. Hermione popped up just after he finished tying the drawstring.

"Oh," she said in surprise. "You're here."

"Er, yeah," he said, running his fingers nervously through his damp hair. "You sure you're okay sleeping in here?:

"Sure, why wouldn't I be?" she asked. "I had to be with Harry and Ron in the same tent for months. I think I can handle myself in bed with you."

"Well, alright then," he said, yawning slightly. "Well, I'm just going to kip in then, worked all morning."

"I'm kinda tired as well," Hermione agreed. They pulled back the covers and discovered silk sheets. She sighed as she slipped beneath them. "You've got great taste in sheets."

"I'm glad you think so my dear."

"I really want this to work Charlie," she said quietly, suddenly feeling nervous about the whole thing.

"It will, don't you worry," he assured her, reaching out to hold her hand.

"As long as I don't have to marry a Death Eater."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 4: The Morning After

The sun came up through the large bay window in Charlie's bedroom, glowing faintly red then getting brighter and brighter until the occupants of the bed room were bathed in golden sunlight. Hermione lay on her right side, facing the window. Charlie lay also on his right side, spooned up behind his fiancé, one arm draped around her waist, his nose nuzzled into her wild bushy hair. Their bodies molded together perfectly, like they were made for each other (I know that sounds cliché but it is true for the sake of the story). Hermione's eyes flickered open as the sun brought her back to the world of consciousness. "Mmm," she moaned, feeling the silky sheets against her skin and Charlie's strong arm around her. How they had gotten into this position, she didn't honestly know, nor did she particularly care much about it. It wasn't every day that you woke up with an attractive man wrapped around you.

"Up already, love?" Charlie murmured into her hair. He swept it to the side and kissed the now-exposed flesh. Hermione felt herself shiver from the intimate contact.

"I really don't wanna get up though," she groaned.

"Because I'm here?" he teased, rubbing his hand lightly up and down her thigh.

"No, cause I'm so bloody comfy," she teased.

"Not because of me as well?" he feigned hurt.

"Nah, this is the most comfortable bed I've ever slept in," she confessed.

"You wound me," he cried out. Hermione turned around in his arms and rested her lips against his bare chest. Charlie groaned.

"There, I kissed it all better," she said promptly, giggling lightly. He pulled her closer with one arm and tilted her chin up with the other. Charlie leaned down and brushed his lips across hers.

"So are you okay with all of this?" he murmured.

"I mean, I hate the fact that there is a marriage law out there, forcing people to get together. Then on the other hand, I rather like it because I never really would have gotten to know you."

"I quite agree, I mean, I've always seen you as my little brother's best mate. I really thought you and Ron would have gotten together."

"We did actually," Hermione said. "We were in sixth year, and it just didn't work out."

"Why?"

"After about a week, things started feeling like brother/sister," she conceded.

"That blows," Charlie sighed, pressing a kiss to her forehead. "You don't feel like that with me, do you?"

"Would I do this if I thought you were like my brother?" she asked as she rolled them over so she ended up on top of him, and kissed him.

"I would say not," he commented. "But unfortunately, we need to get up."

"Why?" she whined.

"Because my stomach is eating me from the inside out," Charlie explained, his stomach exemplifying his point.

"All the Weasley men and their hunger, known throughout the wizarding world," she teased, rubbing his toned stomach lightly.

"Yup, just one of only three things," he said.

"What are the other two?" Hermione questioned.

"Our red hair and the fact that we have monstrous amounts of children," Charlie announced.

"Uh oh," she said. "How many kids were you thinking of having?"

"As many as you are willing to give me," he said sincerely.

"Good answer," she murmured before kissing him briefly. "Now lets go feed your stomach."

"You can cook?"

"Surprisingly yes," she said. "What should we have?"

"I'm kinda in the mood for French Toast," he said, scratching his head.

"Well, that's easy enough," Hermione said as she rolled across the bed to where her bag was.

"What shirt are you wearing?"

"Um… about that," Hermione blushed. "Your mum found one of your old Quidditch shirts in a drawer, so she just let me keep it, and I sleep in it."

"So you got my old room?" he asked.

"Except when Bill and Fleur come to stay, then I bunk in with Ginny," she said.

"So whose pants? They aren't mine, and surely too big to be yours," Charlie reasoned.

"Ron's," she confirmed.

"You just like stealing clothes then, don't you?" he teased. He rolled over and landed on the ground on the side of the bed.

"Ooh, are you okay?" she asked, trying to keep the laughter out of her voice.

"Yup, just my clumsiness coming out," he chuckled.

"Well we'll get along famously," she chuckled.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"So what did you do for food before I came along?" Hermione asked.

"Well, I actually do know how to cook," he said as he stood at the sink, cleaning the dishes. "You can't grow up in my house and not learn to cook."

"True," she conceded.

"Look, we do need to talk about all of this," Charlie said. "There's a lot involved in a marriage."

"I know," she said. "I am really clueless as to how we're supposed to go along with this whole thing."

"Although," Charlie said. "I really think I need to get you an engagement ring, so that's what we should do after the tattoo."

"I still can believe I told you I wanted to get a tattoo," she groaned, finishing her cup of tea.

"I can't believe the Hogwarts bookworm – who probably surpassed Percy – wants to get a tat."

"Well, I guess we can go ring shopping afterwards," Hermione agreed.

"Look, I know you probably don't really want to up root everything you have in London, but I have a house, which you seem to like," Charlie brought up. "I would be the most logical for you to live here; even if you end up working at the Ministry."

"It's the most logical choice," she agreed. "And you're right; I do really like your house. I also don't know where I'm going to work yet; but you never know, I may end up working somewhere around here."

"Where could you work around here?" Charlie asked.

"I'm sure with a bunch of men working at a dragon reserve, you're bound to get into trouble," she explained. "You'll need a healer, and who brews all the trivial potions around the reserve? All the burn salve?"

"True, we've been meaning to hire one of those; it's actually my job to hire someone," he rubbed the back of his head guiltily.

"Exactly," she said primly. "I would be ideal for that position because I know part of the staff, namely you, and I am highly proficient in potions being that I tied Professor Snape's NEWT scores."

"You tied the greasy old bastard?" Charlie asked, completely shocked.

"Yes I did," she said, not bothering to correct his improper name of her respected professor. They finished cleaning the dishes and Charlie offered to take her to the tattoo place that his friend ran if she wanted. This was something she accepted heartily.

"I just need to stop by Gringotts," she said simply as she gathered all her things together in her small beaded bag.

"You are not paying for this," he said firmly.

"But they have to be quite a bit of money, and I have a bit stored away for a rainy day," she insisted.

"To be quite honest, you never have to worry about money again," Charlie said, sitting down at his kitchen table, gesturing for her to do the same. When she sat down, he continued his explanation. "Do you know how much a dragon trainer makes?"

"Not off the top of my head, but I'm presuming not that much, that its just for the people who have a real passion for it," she said.

"That is something you are definitely wrong about. We make more money than we could possibly deal with," Charlie said. "A dragon trainer typically has a two year introduction to the field, to get all the training tips from the older members and to learn the trade. But after that, most guys around here only last at most ten years."

"Why that short?"

"You get burned out," he said. "No pun intended, but there is a lot to do around here. A lot of stress about what dragons going where and what to do if one of them gets out. The stress wears people out, not to mention that there is a great deal of risk for injury around here; as if my scars weren't proof enough."

"Well, how long have you been doing it?"

"I started my introduction just out of Hogwarts at 18, so I was 20 when I got into the full swing of things, and I am 28, so I've been doing this for ten years, but I feel perfectly fine. I don't plan on stopping any time soon, unless one of those scaly buggers maims me," Charlie chuckled. "I technically only have two years left, but there are not many guys that I started with left. They all leave once their ten years are up to live their lives in retirement."

"Retirement at 30, what a life," Hermione said wistfully. "But wizards live quite a bit longer than Muggles and we retire around 60."

"Like I said, I don't plan on retiring," Charlie reminded her. "But, if I do, there's a training program that I went through to get me certified to teach various seminars and classes to the trainers around here. I could always do that when I've had enough."

"Okay, so you're filthy rich," Hermione said to herself.

"So you are not paying for a tattoo," he said calmly. "I make well over a hundred thousand galleons a year. If you think about it, the average person can live on fifteen thousand galleons a year, with out spending too much on frivolities."

"That's quite a bit more than average," Hermione said.

"And I do send some money to my family, but most of the time, they don't accept it, saying that they are fine with how things are, but sometimes I just buy them things with out them knowing… Like some of the clothes that mum has, a new watch for my father, and mum's knitting basket is never spare on yarn for those lovely sweaters."

"You are a good soul underneath all those scars," she quipped and leaned over to kiss him. "Thank you for telling me this, and I promise not to go overboard on the spending. I don't want to take your money."

"Don't think of it as my money, in a few short months, it will be our money, and with the job that you want to take, you will be making slightly less than me, but still quite a large sum."

"I honestly don't know what I would do," she said. "My parents had money sure… they were doctors with their own practice, but we always lived very modestly, not spending more than we needed to. Now I will be the same way, if not richer."

"It's a lot to take in, but I suggest we get to the parlor because I floo'd my friend and said we would be over like five minutes ago."

"Okay then," she said, reaching over to kiss him one more time before they floo'd to the reserve.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

"Sirius! Harry! Ron! I'm home!" Hermione yelled after she tumbled from the floo. The three men came walking out of the kitchen and helped her up, but she cringed when Ron grabbed her shoulders when he hugged her.

"What's up, Mione?"

"Sorry, it still twinges a bit I guess," she shrugged. Sirius knew instantly what she was referring too.

"Lets see then," he prompted eagerly.

She grinned at the older man and turned her back on them. There was a large ornate butterfly that spanned its wings across her shoulders, ending around the middle of her back; and after watching for a few seconds, it flapped its wings. Her shirt was cut so low in the back that you could see the whole tattoo easily.

"You got one?" Ron asked, completely in awe.

"Yup," she said brightly. "Charlie has a friend on the reserve who did it for cheap."

"Now you've joined the club," Sirius said proudly, wiping a fake tear from his eye before giving her a hug. "You've grown up so fast."

"Ha ha, Sirius," she said, hugging him back. "I was already grown up before the tat, now I am just in league with you."

"Touché," he said. "Come on, tell us all about it."

"You sound like a girl getting ready for gossip fest," she noted as the three men followed her into the kitchen where she made herself a cup of tea.

"But I need to know if anyone is hurting my little girl," Sirius pouted.

"Alright dad," she said mockingly. "Well…."


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 5

"Come on Hermione, we need to be getting to the ring shop before it closes," Charlie shouted up the stairs of Grimmauld Place. They had made a date for an hour ago but she had been researching in the library once more and fell asleep. For the past hour she had been showering and getting ready.

"I know, but how was I to know I would fall asleep over the most boring book I have ever read?" she questioned as she hurried down the stairs, tripping on the last one; Charlie had to run forward quickly to catch her before she fell flat on her face. She was wearing very nice black dress that was low enough to see the valley in between her breasts and enough of the back was cut away to see most of her tattoo.

"You really need to ask how? Though I never thought I would see the day that you would," he chuckled, earning himself a swat from the dressed up witch.

"Well you kept hurrying me along and now we are standing around here chatting. We need to get to the shop real quick before we meet everyone at the restaurant," she said as she nearly raced to the front door.

"Woah there girly," Charlie said, grabbing her arm to slow her down. "There's still an hour left before closing."

"Really?" she asked. "Then I could have taken a bit more time with my hair."

"No, it looks perfectly fine," he said. "Believe me, you're beautiful no matter what you do. But right now we need to go to the shop; it might take you a bit to pick the ring you want."

"I'm sure something that you would pick would be fine, I really have no preference," she said quietly, not wanting to pick out an expensive ring, no matter how many times he told her that he had more money than he knew what to do with.

"Well, we'll see what they have there, and if we don't like anything, I think I might have something up my sleeve," he said slyly. She looked at him oddly but didn't dwell on the statement long because he was whisking her out the door to go to the shop down in Diagon Alley. They bustled down the long alley and into one of the off shoots to the tiny little ring shop that Hermione never even knew was there.

"Wow, I guess I never really went shopping around here," she said in awe of the shops that now surrounded her.

"I promise that you can come here all the time and explore as much as you'd like," he said simply.

"I don't need you to tell me what I can do or not," she retorted.

"I know that, but these marriage laws are rigid, and they tend to be more in favor of the male counterpart, giving us unlimited power over the female," he explained, but hurried on quickly as to not offend her. "Not that I think like that. I know you are independent, but this was more for fidelity's sake way back in the day. And I really hope there is no need for you to cheat on me."

"Boy do I hate the law sometimes," she said after a few moments of silence. "I know I'm pissed about it, but there are some times where you need to just accept something that isn't going to change any time soon, right?"

"I guess," he said, not sure where she was going with this.

"We will need to set some ground rules though," she said as they walked down the small alley. "Are you going to be a complete control freak?"

"I sure hope not, I mean you're free to do most things," he said.

"What do you mean by 'most things'?" she asked, cautiously.

"Well, I really wouldn't have appreciate if you went out and slept with the other trainers on the reserve," he said. "That much is obvious. But there are some things that are controlled around me; like, you're only allowed to walk around starkers with me home, so no one else can see what a fabulous body my wife has."

"Well, you don't need to worry about either one of them," she said, snorting. No one in their right mind would want to see her naked, but she did have to worry about her extremely attractive soon-to-be-husband seeking comfortable pleasures elsewhere.

"I just want you to know, that I don't mind if you want to go out with other women; I mean, I can't presume you would want to stay with just me, I mean I am officially taking you off the market," she said quietly.

"You are giving me permission to do something that I sure as hell don't wanna do?" he asked. She looked up at him in confusion. "I don't want anyone else. Why on earth would you think otherwise?"

"Well, I'm not the most attractive girl, and you are quite handsome, so you could have you own pick of women if you –" Hermione was cut off from her little would-be rant by a kiss. This was no ordinary kiss, but one that had her breathless, and she felt a curling sensation in the pit of her stomach that had nothing to do with her oncoming hunger. She responded with her whole body, pressing herself into him and rising up on her toes to meet him. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her even closer. Once he thought he proved his point, he let her go and broke off the kiss.

"Never doubt yourself," he said, looking her in the eye. He grabbed her hand, entwined their fingers and led her into the old jewelry store. They looked around for a little while, perusing a few cases of rings, but finding nothing that he liked. She saw a few pieces that were certainly way to gaudy to strike her fancy but nothing particularly stuck out to her either. "Well, I guess I'm going for the good old choice I originally had."

"What?"

"Well," he said, getting down on one knee outside the shop and bringing a ring outside of his pocket. "Hermione Granger? Will you marry me?"

Charlie Weasley held up the Weasley family ring, the one that none of the other brothers have yet to claim, as it went from oldest to the youngest, falling with Charlie because Bill bought Fleur a sizeable diamond instead. This was a silver ring, but the Diamond was half inlaid in the band with small blue sapphire chips surrounding it. She gasped at the sight of the beauteous ring and nodded her head vigorously. He grinned up at her and swept her up and swung her around.

The three people who were standing in the shop at the time started to clap and smile at the happy couple. Once Charlie set her down, he leaned down to kiss her but pulled back when he felt something wet. He looked down and saw that she had tears running down her pretty face. "Mione, what's wrong?"

"It's nothing, I'm just happy," she said simply, giggling lightly. She swiped her hands over her face to brush the tears away. She looked back up at him, into his big brown eyes that were concern still lingered. "I'm happy, despite the marriage law and everything."

Once they head back to Grimmauld Place, Hermione decides to hide the ring from the boys since they were all going to have a large dinner that night with the rest of the Weasley family, and soon to be extended families. The one thing that Hermione couldn't hide was her genuine smile. Ron just chuckled every time he passed her in the hall and Sirius couldn't help but hug her once he saw how happy she was. Charlie wrote to his mother to saw that he would be staying for the dinner tonight and to let her know that he and Hermione had an announcement. Molly was dancing in her kitchen alone at the arrival of Charlie's letter.

Dinner had arrived sooner than people had realized and soon Molly was in the kitchen of Grimmauld Place along side of Kreacher. He wasn't too pleased about sharing his space but he had learned to deal with the Weasley Matriarch over the past few years. She was making up massive amounts of Shepards Pie since it was rather simple and there was going to be a large amount of people, about 22 people all together. Remus and Tonks replied that they would be there, and Fred and George had insisted that Oliver Wood and his new wife Katie Wood nee Bell, be invited as well, since they had no other family. At this point, the couples were beginning to come together officially. Percy had left the last meeting and proposed to Penelope. She had accepted and had been waiting for a while for him to ask her. Fred and Angelina were trying to set a date for the wedding, and George still was waiting until next week to propose to Alicia. Once the food was being made, people started floo'ing in. Bill and Fleur were first and retired with Sirius and Hestia to the library where Remus and Tonks floo'd in. You could hear laughter coming from the normally quiet room in the house, and it warmed Molly's heart to hear happiness in the world after everything was happening. The twins floo'd in next, followed by their significant others, and Oliver and Katie. Despite the latter two feeling a tad awkward at being invited to a family function, they were soon welcomed with open arms.

Lisa showed up and immediately went into the kitchen to visit with Molly before she went up to see Ron. And the last two people who were to arrive were Percy and Penelope, coming from a later night at the office. Everyone was seated around the large table in the basement kitchen and getting along swimmingly, when Hermione stood up and Charlie immediately stood up as well. "We would like to make an announcement," she said loudly over the din of people talking.

The noise quieted and she continued. "Charlie has asked me to marry him!"

"But didn't he already say he would marry you at the meeting?" Ron asked, being his usual thick-headed self. Lisa pinched his leg.

"Saying you're going to marry someone is not the proper way to propose," she said in a harsh whisper. "A guy needs to ask a lady if she will."

"Thank you Lisa," Hermione said with a smile on her face.

"I wanted to ask because I have a feeling that this marriage will be more than one of convenience," Charlie said. Bill stood up and clapped his brother on the back.

"Congrats little brother," he said with a grin on his face.

"Thank big brother," Charlie said before putting Bill in a head lock and both of them laughing. The women flocked around to Hermione to see her new ring, and several were taken aback when they saw the ring.

"You got the Weasley ring?" Ginny asked in awe.

"I guess," Hermione said, blushing. "Charlie offered to buy a new one, but this one was so pretty. I hope you don't mind."

"Why would I mind?" Ginny asked. "It wouldn't have gone to me anyway, just to one of the boys I guess. I'll get probably the Potter ring that Harry has been hiding in his sock drawer for the past two months."

"You know about that?" Harry asked in shock as he came over to give his best friend a hug.

"Of course I know," she said simply. "I'm Ginny Weasley, duh. I know all."

"Get used to that Harry," Bill said. "The wife knows everything."

"You don't seem to mind so much," Fleur commented.

"That's because I don't do anything that would make you terribly angry, love," Bill replied smartly.

"Good answer," Fleur said before kissing him lightly on the lips. "Do you think this would be a bad time for our announcement?"

"Well…" Bill trailed off, looking at his mother who nodded, then to Hermione, who nodded as well. "Then I guess more the merrier. Fleur and I are pregnant."

A new wave of congratulations was upon the group as they all began to hug the older two Weasley brothers and their significant others.

"Well since tonight is the night of announcements," Fred said. "Angie and I have picked a date, September 1st."

"That's only a month and a half away!" Molly exclaimed. "We need to start planning right away…"

Molly trailed off as she drug Angelina off into the sitting room up the stairs. Everyone congratulated Fred on the wedding date and started to talk about things going on with the law. "What's going to happen to people if the Ministry pairs them up?"

"They have to go through with it," Percy said, sighing and pinching the bridge of his nose. "It's been a rough time at the Ministry since this blasted law came out. No one wants this, and some of the Ministry matches, you know that the guy paid off someone so they could get a certain girl; some of these women don't know what they are getting themselves into if they are waiting for the Ministry to pair them up."

"Like who?" Hermione asked, leaning closer to Charlie.

"Well I hate to see who Lucius Malfoy gets paired with. He's such an evil git," Percy said.

"He came on to me the other day, but I think he got the hint when I flashed my ring. He didn't seem to understand that I have a fiancé," Penelope said, holding Percy's hand. Despite his bookishness, he seemed to be rather protective of his Penelope – as he liked to refer to her.

"So they go to Azkaban or have to give up their magic if they don't get married?" Hermione asked.

"Pretty much," Percy said. "But it is our job as a ministry employee to encourage all those that the law applies to, to get married, that they don't want the ramifications that are associated with noncompliance. That's what we are told."

"Is the population really in that much jeopardy?" Harry asked, pulling Ginny down onto his lap, his arms going around her waist.

"Well, back about a decade ago, the numbers were still high, on the rebound from the first war. But now since the second war is over," Bill said, "a lot of people were killed. And with the bloodlines to mixed amongst each other, they need to introduce new blood, not 'pure' blood. But since they won't get down off their high horses and 'sully' themselves with lower beings, the law was born."

"I am just glad this is going good for me," Hermione sighed, closing her eyes as she laid her head on Charlie's shoulder.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 6

Things were going quite well with Charlie and Hermione. They would see each other a few times a week, floo'ing back and forth. Slowly, Hermione was meeting Charlie's friends on the reserve, and this was pretty good, for a while. After quite a long day at work, Hermione drug herself home and packed a bag to go to Charlie's for the weekend. It was their weekend at his place. She just wanted to go there and take a long bath in his nice bathtub and pass out until morning. Little did Hermione know that Charlie had made plans with some of his mates, clearly not thinking about the fact that his fiancé was coming for the weekend.

"Alright Sirius, I'm gone for the weekend, I'll see you Sunday night," Hermione called out from the foyer.

"Have a good time," Sirius called out from the kitchen, making dinner for him and his fiancé. He was wearing a 'Kiss the Cook' apron, being all domestic in his older age.

Hermione walked over to the fireplace and grabbed some Floo powder and threw it in. "Dragon's Keep." She went whirling away, all the way across the continent toRomaniaand out of Charlie's fireplace. For once, she didn't fall out and make a fool out of herself when she came out; thank Merlin for small favors. In the living room of Charlie's house were 5 trainers and Charlie himself. He was in the big arm chair nearest the fire, relaxing and laughing at something one of the others just said. The coffee table was already strewn with bottle of butterbeer and firewhiskey. They were definitely more than half in the bottle. She just looked around the room for a minute before someone said something.

"Hey Charlie, your bird's here," the bald man said, pointing to her with his half empty bottle.

"Heyyyyy Mia," Charlie slurred. "Whatcha doin' here?"

"It's my weekend to stay here," she reminded him, gesturing to the overnight bag she had at her back.

"Ohh, well, come on in," he gestured wildly to the room. "Make yourself comfortable."

She shook her head at his drunken voice and went back to his bedroom and put her bag on the bed. After taking a deep calming breath, she made her was back out to the living room, where they were all laughing at something. She managed to sit on Charlie's lap, but it wasn't comfortable because he wouldn't sit still. "Ugh," Hermione groaned, pushing herself up off his lap, but he grabbed her hips.

"Ya feel good sittin' there," he said quite loudly.

"Well you don't," she said, trying to get up again, but failing. "Let me up Charlie."

"But why?" he whined.

"Because I'm actually tired and I want to go just take a bath," she said, getting up for real this time. He smacked her behind when she was clear of his lap. The room erupted with laughter, and she turned bright red. "What the hell!"

"Wan' me ta join ya in the bath?" he said licentiously.

"No, I don't want you to join me," she said hotly, still quite embarrassed.

"Got a bit more to ya than I normally get, but I'd go a round in the bath with ya," the bald man said, winking at her. Soon all the guys were saying things along the same lines. Hermione didn't think she could turn more red, but she did when Charlie spoke once more.

"Little more cushion for the pushin' I say," he said, taking another swig to finish his bottle of firewhiskey. Hermione walked away and back into the bedroom, grabbed her bag and back to the floo. She threw the powder in and floo'd back toGrimmauld Place.

Upon hearing the sounds of the fireplace, Sirius dashed out to greet whoever had just arrived. He saw Hermione, sitting on the ground, since she had fallen out now, and she was crying. "Mia? What's the matter?" Sirius asked, hastening over to her, kneeling down and pulling her into his arms. She just sat in his arms and cried for a good five minutes before she calmed herself down enough to talk to him. He was rubbing her back and rocking her back and forth.

"He was such a jerk," she said.

"What do you mean?" Sirius asked. "Did he hurt you?"

"Not physically," she replied. "I got there and he had a bunch of guys over, which I don't think I would have minded if I hadn't worked a long day and they weren't drunk. But there were five of them and Charlie, and they were all more than half in the bottle. All I wanted was to relax and spend time with Charlie. I haven't seen him all week. But no, he was drunk, and slurring his words; generally being an arse. But I went with it for a bit. After a while I just wanted to get up, and I was in his lap. But he wouldn't let me. So I yelled a bit. He smacked my arse and they all made lewd comments. They made fun of my body. He let them talk about me, about the one thing that I am terribly self-conscious about. He was acting like a jerk like his friends. 'Just more cushion for the pushin' ' he says," Hermione said bitterly.

"Oh, honey," Sirius said, kissing her temple gently. "He's a guy. I'm not making excuses for him, but maybe he had a rough week and wanted to wind down for a while. I mean being that drunk by eight at night is a bit excessive, even to my old standards."

This made Hermione giggle a little bit; a success in Sirius' book.

"I know, but still. He knew that it was our weekend. He wrote the letter yesterday saying that he was looking forward to seeing me after a while of being apart," she sighed, leaning against Sirius. "Well I'm staying here this weekend then."

"Want me to carry you up?" he tempted her, chuckling as her eyes got real big.

"Would you really?" she asked.

"You're only on the second floor, of course I don't mind," he said, gathering her up more stably in his arms and carried her back up to her second floor bedroom. He dropped her on her bed, so she bounced and giggled like a school girl again.

"Thanks Sirius," Hermione said as she got up to go get some pajamas. "I don't know what I'd do without you."

"I don't know what I would do without you either love," he said affectionately. "It's gonna be strange when you move out."

"I'll be back to visit, don't you worry. I can't leave my best chess partner now can I?"

"No you can't. I'm sure he'll come by in the morning to apologize for being a git," Sirius said knowingly.

"I'll make you breakfast in the morning," she said. "As payment for letting me cry all over you."

"Deal."

Hermione had fallen asleep almost as soon as Sirius left the room. Her sleep was deep and a solid ten hours. She awoke refreshed at seven the next morning. Stretching and heading downstairs, she nearly ran into Hestia on the stairs.

"Hey Mione," she greeted. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah, a bit better now," Hermione replied.

"Sirius told me what happened, I hope you don't mind," Hestia said. "I just figured you might want a girl to talk to about these kinds of things."

"I'm glad he told you, I mean, I'm just pissed at him," Hermione said, as they continued walking down the stairway. Hermione headed right to the fridge to get out some eggs and supplies for French toast. The girls spoke about the incident until Sirius meandered down from their bedroom, following his nose to the food. He saw down at the table, bleary eyed, waiting for his food.

"What's wrong with you?" Hermione asked as she filled his plate with eggs and French toast.

"I didn't get a chance to get much sleep last night," he said, turning to look at Hestia.

"What? Don't look at me, you could have said no," she teased.

"I blood well couldn't have," Sirius countered. "I can't resist you, and you know that."

"I love the second trimester," Hestia sighed, sitting down next to Hermione. Hermione giggled at the older woman's cavalier-ness. Soon the floo was going off, but no one went out to greet them. In stumbled a completely hung over Charlie Weasley, looking non-too pleased with himself.

"Mia," he croaked. "Can I talk to you?"

"Sure," she sighed, getting up from the table. "Let's go to the library."

He followed her up the stairs, to the third floor and into her favorite room in the house, minus the potions lab in the basement. She sat primly in the arm chair facing the couch. "So… Speak."

"I'm so sorry about last night Mia. I knew that you were coming over, but they just showed up with all this liquor and it had been a long week. I only planned on drinking like two bottles, but then we started to have a good time and I guess I lost it."

"I don't mind if you drink, and I'm certainly not telling you that you aren't allowed your mates anymore, but when you start talking to me like that, and acting like that to me, I don't want to be around it."

"What happened? That part's kinda fuzzy," Charlie said, groaning and rubbing his head. "I still have a hangover."

"Well, you seemed to think that it was alright to come on to me in front of people, making comments about my body that weren't completely complementary to me, and letting your mates say some pretty lewd things as well."

"Oh damn," he hung his head in shame. "I do remember flashes, Tom – the bald one – said something."

"Well apparently you like 'more cushion for the pushin'," Hermione scoffed and crossed her legs.

"Damn it," he groaned. "You know I love your body, I didn't mean anything like that. The rest of the guys like girls who are like anorexic, I like women with your body type. I meant nothing bad by it."

"Well it still hurt, because it's the one thing that I don't feel comfortable with yet. I know you're a good guy, but sometimes you need to think."

"I know and I'm so sorry," he said, looking up at her with blood shot eyes.

"And I forgive you, because I knew that you wouldn't say that under different circumstances," Hermione said. "But I'm still not happy with you."

"I know, I don't deserve for you to be nice to me."

"Accio cleansing potion." A small bottle flew into the room and right to her outstretched hand. "Here, hangover potion."

"Oh thank you, love," Charlie said gratefully. He swallowed it down and sighed in relief. "I will make this up to you, I swear."

"Oh I know you will," she said simply. "You can start with a foot rub." Charlie shook his head in resignation. He summoned her over to the couch so she could lie down and he could rub her tiny feet.

"So we just had our first fight," Charlie pointed out.

"Yeah, I guess we did."

"I know that I won't get off this easy for some things in the future."

"No you might not," Hermione agreed. "But lets just go with this for now."


	8. Chapter 8

**Jobs**

Hermione was seated at the breakfast table with paper strewn across it. This was a norm for her but usually it was various newspapers. Today, there were different stacks for each different job offer. There were four distinct stacks. She was reading through one pole when Sirius walked down for some food.

"'S too early for research Mia," he grumbled, pouring himself a cup of coffee.

"Not research," she said, not taking her eyes off the paper she was reading. "Job offers."

"Where from?" Sirius asked, the sleep clearing from his head after the first sip of the brown drink.

"There are three from the Ministry and one from Charlie's reserve."

"Not bad choices there," Sirius commented. "Wanna talk out the process?"

"If you don't mind," she said, the back of her neck turning slightly pink.

"You talk, and I'll whip up some breakfast for the lot," he said.

"Okay. Well. I could become an Auror, they accepted me into the fall training program. I mean, that'd be cool, but I've had enough dark wizards for a while. And I don't think the Aurors do such a good with what they normally do. There's so much corruption going on. And plus, Kingsley isn't in it anymore, so I don't even really know anyone other than Tonks. The training would be two years. I make 5,000 galleons a year for the first two years (**A/N: 5 ****US**** $ per galleon… at least that's my estimate**). Then you have a year as a rookie with a small pay raise. They you have to work your way through the ranks. But I just don't think I could do it."

"Why not?" he questioned, already knowing the answer.

"It's all I've been doing the past couple of years, school and fighting bad wizards. I'm quite sick of it," she replied. "And I'm not sure if I could stay with Harry and Ron, because they will inevitably go there. They need to go on their own now. Although they probably won't leave each other."

"So it sounds like you've made up your mind there," he commented. He had various pans full of eggs, bacon, sausage, and pancakes cooking on the range in front of him.

"Yes," Hermione said, putting that stack aside, to write a letter informing them of her decision later. "Next is the Department for the Control and Regulation of Magical Creatures. I used to think that I could do some real work here, but I've researched the head people. They're all Purebloods, no offense to you, and they're all bigoted arseholes."

"Dear, tell me how you really feel," he chuckled. "Most, if not all of them have signed anti-werewolf legislation. They won't change many things with you in there I'm afraid."

"I know. They pay they're offering me is shite, and it would be here inLondon," she finished. "This one's out." Hermione put the pile off with the Auror offer.

"One more at the Ministry?" Sirius asked.

"Yeah, Department of Magical Law Enforcement. It's like for those who can't hack it as an Auror. They actually want me in the legislative branch. I could help turn around all those laws against me. They're offering 5,000 galleons a year to start."

"That sounds like something you would be good at, my little book worm," Sirius teased, flipping a few pancakes.

"I'd be working from 9-5,"Hermione continued, ignoring the book worm comment. "Which is fine. I like doing research and I enjoy learning about the law."

"Sounds pretty good. Now what's this other one? You seem to care for this one just as much."

"Well, its inRomania. I would go through a crash course in healing and be their potions mistress. It's a full time job, two actually. Each start at 3,000 galleons a year."

"Well, we do have a predicament," Sirius said. At that moment, Hestia walked down the stairs in her pajamas – a pair of Sirius' boxers and a t-shirt. You could really see her baby bump now.

"What predicament?" she asked, kissing Sirius on the cheek and going to sit next to Hermione.

"My jobs," Hermione signed. The young woman gave Hestia the run down on which two options were left and why.

"Well," Hestia said, rubbing her bump. "I think you already know which one you're gonna take."

"I know, but I don't wanna give the other one up. I don't wanna regret it later."

"I don't think you will. He won't be at the reserve forever. Charlie will retire and will most likely come back here. You can always try later. And if not, owl correspondence. They can give you small projects just to keep your foot in the door."

Hermione launched herself at Hestia, giving her a big hug. "I'm down here for like an hour, you're here for ten minutes and you give a solution and get a hug," Sirius groused. Hermione giggled and went to give him a hug. With a, now smug, smile, he plated breakfast and went to go wake up Harry and Ron. Hermione set to work, writing her declination letters to the Ministry departments. The one to the DMLE, she included a small note about correspondence work and why she couldn't take the job; but she'd really love to. Finally, she wrote to the reserve, to Charlie's boss – the one she requested the paperwork from instead of Charlie – and accepted their offer. She could start work after their honeymoon.

When Harry and Ron came down, Hermione explained her choices to them as they ate breakfast. "Well then, this sounds like a reason for a celebration."

"My dear Godson, what did you have in mind?" Sirius asked.

"Just, like, the Order, maybe a few outside friends. We do need to let loose a bit, why not this weekend? We can finally use the grill pit out back."

"Sounds good to me," Sirius agreed. "What about you girls? You in the mood for a good party?"

"I'm game," Hestia said. "Get some fun, minus the drinking, before this little one comes."

"When are you due?" Hermione asked.

"The middle of November."

"Alright Harry, Ron, lets leave the estrogen sisters and go plan this party."

They both agreed and went off to the study with Sirius.

The day of the party had arrived and Hermione was nervous. She hadn't told Charlie about the job yet, but she was nervous about what he would say. But before she could worry about him, he came out of the fireplace early that Saturday morning.

"Hey, love," he greeted, moving in for a kiss.

"Morning," she replied with a smile. "How are you?"

"Excited. You got a job," he said. "Not that you wouldn't, or couldn't, but you know you didn't have to."

"You know I wouldn't be able to sit home all day and play Susie Homemaker."

"I know," he said. "But the option is always there."

"Well I did get a job, and I start two weeks after the wedding, or sooner if necessary," she began. "I'm gonna tell you now, so in case you're upset, you have time to cool down before guests arrive."

"I won't be mad. What ever it is, we'll work it out," he said, pulling her close to his chest.

"Well, I got four offers, but I took the one at the Reserve. The one you were supposed to fill, but I owl'd your boss for the paperwork. I would be the healer and potions mistress at the Reserve. You're healer needs to retire and you've always imported your potions at too high a cost."

"You'd move toRomaniafor me?" Charlie asked incredulously.

"Yes, I would. You love your job, and I will enjoy the jobs I have accepted. They gave me options to research and create new stuff. And I have a very part time owl correspondence with the Department for Magical Law Enforcement. I can review drafts of new legislature that deal with 'Minorities'; Muggleborns, goblins, and others."

"You're awesome," he said. "I know we're kinda new at this, but I think I'm falling in love with you." Hermione's eyes widened and launched herself at him. They went in for a nice long snog.

"I think I am too," she murmured in his ear. They were snogging for quite a while when Sirius walked in.

"Hey you two!" Sirius said sternly. "None of that now, you're not married yet."

"You're recently married pregnant wife would be laughing at you," Charlie returned after they broke apart.

"Yeah, yeah, you got me there," he said. "But lay off kissin' her in front of me. I don't think my kid should be snoggin' like that."

"Your kid?" Charlie questioned.

"He's become like a dad, in every sense except biologically, since we helped him escape. He's gonna walk me down the aisle at our wedding."

"Yup, and as her honorary father, I day no more snogging and you two help me set up for this party."

"Yes sir," they both saluted.


	9. Chapter 9

The Wedding

The morning of the wedding had arrived. The ceremony was at four o'clock this afternoon at Hogwarts. Hermione spent the night at Hogwarts, in her old room; the Head Girl's suite. All of the other women were staying there as well: Ginny, Molly, Hestia, Tonks, Lisa, Penelope, Fleur, Alicia, and Katie. The men would be staying at the Burrow to get ready before apparating to Hogsmeade and a short carriage rise to the Black lake. They would be having the ceremony on the shore furthest from the school.

It was ten the next morning when the Weasley matriarch finally woke up the bride. "Hermione dear, let's get you up and ready for your big day."

Hermione rolled over and looked out her window. This would be her final few hours as a single woman. She got out of bed and walked to the window. She could see the small platform already set up for the wedding ceremony. At first, she wasn't fond of this marriage law. Forcing her to marry someone, and in turn, forcing someone to marry her. But now she thought differently. She still wasn't fond of the law, but she felt very fortunate to be marrying Charlie. They were good for each other.

With a final sigh, she turned from the windows and heard down to wedding central. All of the other women were up and had a breakfast assortment already set up. Hermione made a bee-line to the coffee. Once she had the first sip of the caffeinated goodness she turned to the ladies. "So what's gonna go down today?"

"Well, we have breakfast, then you off to shower and such. Then we're gonna work on your nails and hair, we'll work it however you want. Then a light snack before putting you in the dress and getting you all ready. We'll be getting ready when we can, but everyone will be in here dear."

"Okay then, off to the baths with me," she said, finishing her coffee and heading back upstairs. Once she locked herself in the large bathroom that her room came attached to, she let out a huge sigh. She thought Molly would have been way worse with wanting to control everything, but she seemed far more relaxed than she was at Bill and Fleur's. Perhaps this was due to the fact that she had far more weddings she needed to oversee. Hermione set up the bath to pour her favorite scents into the tub and waiting for it to fill. Once the tub was full, she walked right on inside. If only she could stay in for a few hours and just relax, but she knew that she didn't have that long. The shampooing and conditioning of her hair took nearly as long as a normal person would use to take a shower. She had so much hair that it was hard to deal with, and she wondered what the women were going to do to it to make it look presentable today. While the conditioner was setting in her hair, she hopped up on the side and shaved her legs, no groom would want a bride with hairy legs; she would have to remember to do this more often, since she tended to forget when she got really tired.

Once everything was proper shaved and rinsed out, she drained the tub and went to her vanity. Her teeth brushed and hair wrapped in a towel, she exited the room and headed down in her robe. The other women were chatting away when she came down, smiling at her friends and family. Ginny and Lisa, who were still in shorts and zip up jackets; they would be the ones to help her get everything ready. They marched her back up the stairs and into a chair in front of her vanity. It took quite a while, but they managed to get all of Hermione's bushy hair straightened. It was so long now that I reached the bottom of her back. They secured it away from her face by pulling two front pieces back and clipping them with a barrette with a white rose attached to it. Her make-up was natural, earthy tones, but not overpowering.

Once the superficial dressing was done, Ginny and Lisa took turns doing their hair and make-up. They were the first two to put on their bridesmaids dresses; lovely pale green t-length dresses. For the ceremony they would be going barefoot, since they were going on the beach. Hermione had tried to find a color that would suit both the girls, since colors were really hard to match with Ginny's hair. But they both pulled it off quite nicely. The last piece of the puzzle was getting Hermione into her dress. She had a strapless dress with a corset top that had a sweetheart neckline. The dress went to the floor, and she too would be barefoot.

Mrs. Weasley came in at this point, to check on how things were going. "Oh Hermione dear, you look so beautiful," she gushed, causing Hermione to blush.

"Thank you Mrs. Weasley," she replied quietly. "Oh now none of that dear," she said brusquely. "You call me Mom, or Molly if you feel more comfortable."

"Thanks Molly, I mean you all have been so accommodating for me since this marriage law came out," Hermione said, hugging her mother-in-law.

"Come on, let's go down. Colin arrived and wants to take pictures of the girls now that the boys are all ready and heading out to the lake," Molly said, taking her hand and leading her down the stairs. The rest of the women were dressed in their finest and waiting for the bridal party to join them. Colin was setting up his camera off to the side. They all let out sounds of admiration when they caught sight of Hermione in her dress. She got all kinds of hugs that left her breathless after a while.

"Hermione Granger, you look fantastic," Colin said last, turning to face her. He had recovered quite well since the battle, and he was slowly starting his own photography business; the reason for Hermione hiring him for the wedding.

"Thanks Colin," Hermione said, walking over to give him a hug. "Alright then. Let's get started!" Colin announced. He had all the women in one picture, and various pairings together. As the session drew to a close, Colin was taking a few stills of Hermione by herself, holding her bouquet of lilies, when there was a knock at the door. Molly went over to answer it and let the person in. Handsome as ever, Sirius Black strode into the room, his all black attire suiting him perfectly. He greeted his wife with a kiss before going to Hermione.

"Are you ready Mia?" he asked, pulling her close for a hug.

"I am," she confirmed.

"Can I get a picture?" Colin asked hopefully. Sirius smiled and nodded, turning Hermione around so they could both face the camera. And with that final picture, the wedding party was ready to head out. They walked down to the large carriages at the front of the castle. Guests got into one, while the wedding party and Sirius got into the other. They made their way to the Black lake, where chairs and a make-shift aisle were made up. The guests got out first and found their seats. The best men lined up in front of the bridal party carriage and escorted the bridesmaids down the aisle to stand on either side of Charlie, who was dressed in a crisp white shirt and black pants, with no shoes as well. Bill escorted his sister down the aisle, and Tom escorted Lisa down. Sirius was the second to last to emerge from the carriage. He held out his hand and helped her out of the carriage.

They walked slowly down the aisle as music played out over the lake, everyone's eyes on her. Charlie was smiling a mile a minute. Hermione could her herself smiling back up at him, happy that she was getting married to a great man. They reached the end of the aisle and Sirius kissed her cheek before resting her hand in Charlie's. The two men looked at each other and nodded in agreement. Dumbledore cleared his throat and went through the marriage ceremony. Hermione and Charlie couldn't help but smile at each other during the whole ceremony. They said the right lines, the right names, and Charlie was quite enthusiastic when Dumbledore said they could kiss. She was now Mrs. Charles Weasley.

They greeted their guests after the ceremony before everyone went back into the carriages so they could go back to the entrance hall of the castle. The reception had been all planned by Molly, so Hermione had no idea about what was going on. They got a few minutes to themselves in the carriage. "We're married," Charlie commented, entwining his fingers with hers.

She looked up at him like she was the happiest woman in the world. "Yeah, we're married," she agreed.

He leaned down to kiss her gently on the lips. She smiled into the kiss. It would be impossible for her to not smile on a day like today. Their minutes together alone were brief, but they made it count; enough that she had to reapply her lipstick and wipe the excess off of Charlie's mouth. They waiting in the carriage until someone came to get them, saying they were going to be announced. "And here we have Mr. and Mrs. Charles Weasley!" a voice boomed and the newlywed couple entered the room. They were met with a maelstrom of applause and cheering. Colin was snapping pictures rapid fire and the couple made their way to the front table.

Once Charlie and Hermione were seated, food appeared at everyone's seat. There wasn't a whole lot of chatter going on, but you could hear the clink of silverware on the ceramic plates. There was a chicken dish, prime rib, as well as a seafood dish. Hermione had the seafood while Charlie's plate held the prime rib. They were both shocked that it was to their preference. Molly went above and beyond. Soon after the dinner was finished, it was time for the couple's first dance. Hermione did get to choose this song, and it was one of her favorites. Without you by David Guetta. It wasn't the ideal situation, but it still how she felt. Hermione had had this conversation with Charlie a few weeks ago that they wanted to stay together. It wasn't the most conventional way for them to get together, but the more and more time they spent around each other, they figured out that they were a good match for each other, and were slowly falling in love with each other. It was only a matter of time, but the ministry could go blow it out their ass if they tried to make them divorce down the road.

**A/N: Sorry about the long interlude between chapters. This semester has been quite rough, but finished at the end of this week... I will be updating more often, or at least I hope to**


	10. Chapter 10

**Honeymoon**

The wedding went on well into the night, drinking and dancing, and in some cases debauchery. Luna Lovegood ended up getting caught in a broom closet just outside the Entrance Hall snogging with one Neville Longbottom. As midnight was drawing nearer, Charlie finally got a chance to dance with his wife. Wife. He needed to get used to saying that. She was still looking gorgeous, even if slightly tired. It had been a long day with the preparations, the wedding, all the greetings, and all the dancing he had seen her do. "So how are you my dear?"

"I'm wonderful, husband. I think I've had at least a dance with every guy here," she replied. "Thank goodness I charmed my shoes."

"Well maybe if you're good later I might give you a foot rub," he teased, pulling her closer to him.

"I'm always good, what are you talking about?" she teased right back. Hermione leaned in to Charlie and rested her head on his chest, looking out at their wedding guests. "So, where is this mysterious place you're taking me for our honeymoon?"

"Well I was hoping to surprise you when we got there, but I think your reaction might be just what these guests need," he said, running a hand down the side of her face. "I have a friend who got us a trip organized in India."

"We're going to India?" Hermione said excitedly.

"Yes we are, love," he said, smiling down at her.

"Oh my gosh, thank you!" she squealed and jumped up on him, forcing him to catch her. He swung her around and chuckled at her enthusiasm. People began to look toward the newlywed couple in confusion. Hermione released Charlie from her grasp and shouted to the crowd, "He's taking me to India!"

There were cheers from all around. The people who were closest to her knew how much going to India would mean to her. Not only because it would be a highly educational experience, but it was a beautiful country, and they would be spending time together as a real couple, around people who didn't know that they got married because of a stupid law. It would be their own little slice of heaven.

As the clock struck midnight, Charlie stood up at the head of the Great Hall. "Everyone, we would like to thank you for being here today and being able to share this special time with us. But seeing as it's late, we are going to be heading to India for two weeks. We look forward to seeing everyone when we return, and promise to have lots of pictures." Charlie whisked his bride out of the Great Hall and out to the carriage waiting for them at the entrance to the castle. The carriage took them to Hogsmeade where they could apparate to their location. "Are you ready?"

"Yeah, let's go!" she said enthusiastically. He wrapped her in his strong arms and turned sharply. Hermione felt that familiar sensation of being squeezed through a tube before her feet hit solid ground in a country that she had never been before. It was daybreak when they arrived, but they would be able to sleep for quite a while, since they were on their honeymoon and could do what they wanted. Charlie took them through the lobby of the hotel they would be staying at. It was lavish, yet authentic, and Charlie spoke with the man at the front desk and arranged everything. When Charlie returned to Hermione's side, she was still spinning in slow circles, taking everything in.

"You ready to go love?" he asked, holding out his hand for her. She took it with a smile on her face and nodded. He led her off to an ante chamber where they could take an elevator up to the tenth floor. They would be staying in the honeymoon suite. It was lavishly decorated, and there was a huge bed dominating the space of the master bedroom. The bathroom facilities could hold probably the entire Weasley family comfortable if need be. Needless to say Hermione was impressed with her husband. Husband. She couldn't stop smiling when she thought the word. Hermione stood in the doorway to the master bedroom and took in the sight. Charlie came up behind her and snaked his arms around her middle. "Have I told you today how beautiful you look?"

"Only a few times, but it's nice to hear," she replied, leaning back and tilting her head to the side so he could nuzzle her neck.

"Well you are," he said, trailing light kisses up her neck so he could nibble at her ear lobe a bit. "And you're mine." Hermione liked the sound of that. Charlie's. She wasn't one for having a man rule over her, but it felt nice to have one that was hers and she was his. "How about we get you out of this gown?"

"And what do you propose we do then?" she asked coyly.

"Oh I think you know," he said, turning her around so he could finally kiss her without all kinds of people watching. Having this witch in his arms felt right, something he had never felt with someone before. He couldn't wait to make her his. He pressed his lips to hers firmly, kissing her thoroughly; and she returned the kiss with equal fervor. His hands felt their way up and down her back until he found the zipper to her dress. He was glad she went with a simple dress and not one with crazy amounts of buttons that he had seen in previous weddings. He lowered the zipper slowly, drawing out the suspense of the moment her dress would fall. Hermione's nimble fingers were already starting to make headway on the buttons of his dress shirt. Once the shirt was undone, her nails trailed down his muscular chest, and down his firm stomach. Charlie finally lowered the zipper to her lower back and began to bring the shoulder straps down. He reverently lowered the dress, leaving her in her lace strapless bra and matching panties. He sucked in a breath. He had seen her in a bathing suit when she had dinner at his place for the first time, but this was fantastic.

Hermione was still a bit self-conscious about how her body looked, but the way Charlie was devouring her with his eyes it made her feel better. She pushed through her nervousness and pushed his shirt off his shoulders. With his tanned, freckled skin revealed, Hermione felt like the luckiest girl in the world. She brought her lips to his chest and kissed a trail up to his neck and ended up back at his lips. Charlie pulled her close, feeling skin on skin, her lace scrape against his chest. Hermione's hands smoothed their way down his chest and to the button of his slacks. She flicked it open and doffed his pants quickly. Once they had stepped out of the clothes they had dropped to the floor, Charlie pulled Hermione to him again. This time he was insistent with his kisses. She wound her arms around his neck, threading her fingers through his hair while he kept her close with a hand at the back of her neck and at her lower back. They explored each other's mouths, trying to memorize the feeling that they were kissing as a married couple. After standing there for a minute or two kissing, Charlie decided to take matters into his own hands, quite literally. He smoothed his hands down her back and cupped her bottom, lifting her up in the process. She let out a squeak and wrapped her legs around his middle instinctually.

Charlie chuckled at her surprise but carried her further into the room and over to the bed. Slowly and carefully he crawled onto the bed and gently lowered her to it. It felt like heaven to be laying on this bed. Charlie pressed his weight into her, kissing her once more. He knew he had to take his time and be gentle with her first time, but he wanted nothing more than to feel her wrapped around him like now. Hermione wasn't making it easy on him either, writing against him, trying to get him closer to her. Nothing could be close enough. Their movements became frantic, Hermione clawing at his back and Charlie tugging at her hair. Hermione took matters into her own hands, locking her ankle behind his and rolling them over. Once she was settled on top of his hips, she could feel his desire for her. With a smile on her face, Hermione reached behind her and unhooked the bra that held up her ample chest. His eyes went wide with the site and could only sit there for a few moments in stunned silence. But as soon as he regained himself, he sat up so he was face level with her chest. With a wicked smile he attacked the newly exposed skin with his lips and tongue. She threw her head in pleasure as he drove her to a new type of insanity.

Hermione kept grinding down on Charlie's lap, and it got to the point where he couldn't stand it anymore. He rolled them back over and drew her panties down her long legs. Before he could get a good look at her she was pushing his boxers down his strong legs. Hermione got a good look at what she had been feeling against her. She was looking pretty worried when she saw the size but Charlie put a hand to her cheek and gave her a reassuring look. He laid Hermione back on the pillows, her hair fanned out around her face, looking angelic. Charlie leaned down and kissed her gently. He took his time to worship her body, letting his hands and lips travel over everywhere he could see.

Once he was sure that she was ready, Charlie went nice and slow, making sure that it was enjoyable for both of them. A few tears escaped her eyes as he broke through her innocence, but he was right there, murmuring sweet nothings and kissing the tears away. He started moving once Hermione indicated that it wasn't as painful anymore. Soon, they built up a rhythm, moving against each other, pushing and pulling at the same time. When Charlie was about to hit his peak, he spoke. "Look at me."

Hermione's eyes met his, his deep voice soothing to her, yet driving her higher and higher. With one look at his gorgeous eyes, she fell apart underneath him. With the way she was looking, it was lucky that Charlie could have made it for the final two thrusts to lose himself in his own orgasm. He was totally glad they waited until they were married for this. It made the final moments just that much sweeter. Charlie tried not to collapse after his muscles went through all that exertion, but he failed miserably. Hermione welcomed the weight on top of her. The weight and pressure calmed her nerves, and brought her back to the real world. She couldn't believe that what they just did could feel that good. She brought her arms up around his back and began trailing her fingers along his spine, feeling the muscles and firmness of the bones. Charlie was still panting, but gave a satisfied groan before rolling off to the side, bringing her to snuggle her way into the pocket created by his side and his arm around her.

"You are bloody brilliant," he murmured, laying a kiss on the top of her head.

"You're not so bad yourself," she teased half-heartedly.

"I think I'm going to like being married to you," he replied, squeezing her side lightly.

"I hope that's not only why you are going to like being married to me," Hermione nudged.

"Definitely not the only thing, but definitely a bonus in the pro column."

0o0o0o0o0o0o

Although Charlie would have liked to have stayed in bed all day for the next two weeks, but they needed sustenance at some point, so he agreed to let Hermione lead him all over the country. They stopped at historical sites during the day, eating at quaint local places and enjoying the benefits of their marriage at night. This cycle went off for two weeks, and they didn't want to return to England or Romania. They would rather stay off on their own. But they knew they had jobs to get back as well as the task of moving Hermione's stuff into his house. They would be changing the second bedroom into an office of sorts, as well as building a room off to the back for her to research with potions on the side.


	11. Chapter 11

**Hermione gets sick?**

Two months had passed since Hermione and Charlie returned from their wonderful honeymoon to India. Two months of wedded bliss. Hermione began working at the reserve full time, and between her two jobs, she felt quite rewarded. The reserve had been very lucky as of late, with injuries being few and far between. The most severe injury that she had seen so far was a minor second degree burn to a new trainee's arm. This lack of work in her healing job gave her more time to devote to her potions research. Hermione was currently working on increasing the healing time of some of their burn salves. Charlie was back at work and seemed happier than he had in a long time; maybe it was because he finally married the right girl. They had been expanding their home when they got home from their jobs, and their one day off a week. Hermione was enjoying helping her _husband_ make their home just that much more theirs.

But something happened one morning. Hermione threw up. Charlie had already gone to work, because they were getting a new shipment of dragons that they wanted a seasoned trainer to oversee. As she was brushing her teeth after the initial vomiting she tried to think if she had something bad to eat the night before or if someone on the reserve had a stomach bug that she might have contracted. When nothing came to mind, she was already feeling better, so she just decided to go on with her day. She apparated to her office and had an overwhelming need to throw up again. Hermione hightailed it to the bathroom and emptied whatever was left in her stomach. A quick shake of her head, she was feeling better. So she used her spare toothbrush to get the nasty taste out of her mouth once more. For the next couple of hours, she felt fine, and it was put out of her mind. No one had been there when she made her mad dash to the bathroom earlier that morning, so no one suspected that she was even ill.

Every day Hermione seemed to experience the same thing. Throw up as soon as she got out of bed, and almost immediately after she apparated. No one noticed, and she didn't tell anyone either; especially Charlie. She didn't want him to think that there was something wrong. After the first week she tried floo'ing to work, trying to avoid one trip to the bathroom. To no avail, apparently. At this point, Hermione started to keep saltines in her desk to try to calm her stomach if she felt random nausea attacks through the day. Finally, enough being enough, she decided to tell someone.

On Hermione's day off, she decided to make plans with Ginny and Molly to have a girls' day. This was what she had told Charlie, but in reality, she wanted them to take her to St. Mungo's to see if something was wrong. "I'll be back for dinner, I promise love," Hermione said as she was kissing Charlie goodbye at the back door.

"Good," he replied cheekily. "I can't be expected to make my own dinner."

"You mister, are incorrigible," she said, poking him in the chest lightly. With one final kiss, she walked out the door and apparated. She landed on the outskirts of the Weasley family home and proceeded to run to the trees a short distance away and empty her stomach of the breakfast she and Charlie shared. After she was done, she cleaned her mouth with some water she conjured up before heading up the walk to the Burrow. Without bothering to knock, Hermione opened the door and called out for the matron.

Molly came bustling out of the kitchen where she was cleaning up from breakfast to greet her. "Hermione dear!" she cried out, coming over to hug her newest daughter-in-law. "Oh, you are way too thin! Let me get you something to eat."

"I'm fine Molly, honestly," Hermione tried to placate. "Is Ginny here yet?"

"I am now," Ginny announced, stepping out of the fire and brushing off the soot. The girls hugged and Hermione turned back to Molly to ask her a favor.

"I have a small problem that you guys might be able to help with," Hermione began.

"What's the matter? Is it Charlie?" Molly asked. "I'm not afraid to give him a bit of a talking to if he isn't treating you right."

"No, Charlie and I are fine. We get along so well and it has been wonderful so far," Hermione explained. "For the past two weeks, I've been getting sick, but once I do, I feel better."

"Just throwing up?" Molly asked, going to her bookshelf to get her book on basic medical conditions.

"Yeah," Hermione confirmed.

"When are you normally getting sick?" Molly asked.

"Normally when I wake up and just after I get to work," Hermione explained. "It's normally after I apparated or floo."

"Oh," she said, closing her book without really looking in it. "I know what's wrong."

"Really?" Hermione looked shocked. "What is it?"

"Well, think about it, you're a newlywed, and you just got back from a honeymoon," Molly carefully pointed out. "What is something that you have done with Charlie quite a bit? I mean I don't need to know about my son doing things, but I know he definitely wouldn't not do it with you."

"You mean…?"

"Yes, I mean you could be pregnant. This is morning sickness."

"But I can't be pregnant yet," Hermione said, sitting down on the couch. "We have only been married for three months."

"Yes, and look at how many children I have dear," Molly placated.

"Oh no," she groaned. "We need to make sure."

"Alright, it's time for a trip to St. Mungo's."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

With Molly and Ginny in tow, Hermione checked in with the main office and asked for a pregnancy test, but to keep things quiet. She didn't want other people knowing before Charlie. They staff was quite helpful and said that they wouldn't release anything to the press. Once she was settled in a room, they had to wait a little while for the healer to come in. "What if I am really pregnant?"

"Then you tell Charlie and then celebrate with more shagging," Ginny suggested.

"You are bad," Hermione giggled. "I mean, am I really ready to have a child? I'm only nineteen years old, well soon to be twenty in a few weeks."

"I was your age when I had Bill," Molly said. "And I didn't think I was ready either, but somehow you do become ready once you hold that little baby in your arms for the first time."

"I sure hope so," Hermione said just before the healer came in.

"Good morning Hermione," he said. He was a few years ahead of her in school, a Ravenclaw named Barry. "What seems to be the problem?"

"Well I think I might be pregnant," she replied.

He began making notes in her chart. "And what made you think this?"

"Well I've been getting sick for the past two weeks, mostly in the mornings," she said. "I went to see my mother-in-law to see what she thought, and now we're here."

"Alright, I need you to lay back on the bed and lift up your shirt so I have clear access at your stomach." Hermione complied. He waved his wand over her abdomen and his wand lit up red. "And red means pregnant. And…" he muttered a few more incantations and then tapped it against the small device in his hand (it looked much like a Muggle cellphone). "You are about two and a half months along."

"Honeymoon baby," Ginny murmured.

"Just get married?" Barry questioned.

"Yeah, to Charlie Weasley," Hermione answered pulling her shirt down and sitting back up.

"Really? Not expecting that one, figured it would be one of the two you were glued to with back in school."

"Nah, she's married to Harry," Hermione pointed to Ginny. "And Ron married a Ravenclaw from our year, Lisa Turpin."

"Ah, nice girl from what I remember."

"Yeah," Hermione agreed. "Thanks for letting me know that I actually am pregnant. Is there anything I should be doing differently?"

"Well where do you work?"

"I'm the local healer and potions mistress at the Romanian Dragon Reserve," she replied.

"Try to stay away from the more volatile ingredients, and generally just be careful," he said. "There is a prenatal potion that you can make easily enough, it's very similar to the contraceptive potion." He handed her a sheet of paper with the ingredients and directions. "Take one cup daily, and the directions I gave you is enough for a week or so."

"Thanks," she said again. The three women left the hospital and headed back to the Burrow.

"I'm pregnant," Hermione said as she collapsed on the couch.

"Well this is good," Molly said. "Now we don't have to worry about the law."

"I know, I just wonder how Charlie is going to take the news," Hermione worried.

"He will be fine," Molly said, going off to the kitchen to make some tea.

"He's always wanted kids," Ginny said. "I was young enough that he would pretend that I was his sometimes."

"He will be a great father, but we hadn't really talked about having kids yet," Hermione said. "I know he wants kids, and I've come to terms with the fact that due to Weasley fertility, that I will be having more than one, but it all seems like it's happening too fast."

"It's fine to be nervous," Ginny said, rubbing her friend's back. "Everything will be just fine."


	12. Chapter 12

Hermione came home after the day with the Weasley/Potter women feeling better about everything, but at the same time worse. She still had to tell Charlie about the baby. She was planning on tomorrow night at dinner. She was making some Chinese food, and decided to put the news inside a fortune cookie. Hermione had all the next day to come up with the final message for Charlie, and everyone she worked with could see that she was distracted.

"Hermione, what's wrong?" Leah asked. They had been working together since Hermione came back and Hermione was very grateful to find a new friend out here. Someone she could talk to other than Charlie and the guys who came by the house.

"It's nothing really, just distracted really," Hermione replied.

"You sure?"

"Yeah, don't worry about it, I have something planned, and if all goes right, I'll be telling you tomorrow," she replied cryptically.

"You better," Leah warned.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

Hermione got home two hours earlier than Charlie today so she took the time to write the fortune and put it the cookie well before he got home. She then proceeded to cook the meal from scratch. They had simple steamed chicken and broccoli with pan seared noodles. Charlie got home and was whistling. Things had been going well today at the reserve, no one got burnt today, only a few minors because they were moving equipment so they could take inventory. The new dragons were settling in nicely and it was more than he could have hoped for. Now he smelled Hermione's cooking.

"Mmm, smells good," he announced as he walked through the kitchen. "What are we having?"

Hermione told him their menu. "And look, I even got us fortune cookies to celebrate the new arrivals," she said, double innuendo lost on Charlie. Charlie went to wash up before dinner as Hermione plated their dinner. Charlie had loose jeans on now, and his old Quidditch shirt; and Hermione thought he couldn't have looked any better. They settled down to dinner, going over what they did that day, the dragons seemed to be one best behavior, and Hermione had a chance to restock most of the potions in the store room. When the time came to open fortune cookies, she made sure that Charlie got the special one.

"You open yours first," Charlie prompted. Hermione complied, cracking the yellow cookie and pulling out the piece of paper.

"Luck and fortune coming your way," she read. "Your turn."

Charlie cracked his cooking and brought out the piece of paper. The words written said, 'Congratulations Daddy' with a small foot print next to the words. Charlie stared at the paper, blinked a few times, and then looked at Hermione. "Are you serious?"

Hermione nodded. A grin broke out on Charlie's face. He pushed back from the table and hurried over to his wife. Pulling her up from her seat, he kissed her full on the mouth. She grinned in to the kiss and when they broke apart. "I was worried you would be upset."

"Why would I be upset, I'm going to be a Dad," Charlie said confused. He put his arms around Hermione's waist and looked down at her.

"Well we haven't been married that long, I figured you would have wanted to wait," she said warily.

"I didn't mind when our kids would get here, but at least now we don't have to worry about the ministry breathing down our backs," he joked. She smiled at this.

"That's what Ginny said."

"You told Ginny first?" Charlie asked.

"Well I wasn't feeling good in the morning and a few times during the day for the past two weeks or so, and I was supposed to have a girl's day with your mother and Ginny. When I was telling your mom about what was going on, she suggested that I was pregnant. We ended up going to St. Mungo's and they confirmed it. It was a honeymoon baby."

"Well we did do quite a bit of baby making," Charlie said, a sensuous look on his face.

"Yes we did," Hermione said, blushing.

"I still can't believe you blush, considering all the things we did," Charlie chuckled, bringing her closer to his chest.

"I know, I just can't help it."

"Can we still… you know…?"

"Yeah, we can," Hermione said. Then she squealed as Charlie lifted her up and carried her back to the bedroom.

"Good, because we need to celebrate this accomplishment," Charlie said, gently putting her down on the bed. He began to slowly undress his wife, looking over her body, totally ready to see the awesome changes her body would go through in the upcoming months. He let her lay on the bed while he quickly stripped himself of his clothes. He covered her body with his and began a gentle assault on her senses, kissing down her body. Once he reached her stomach, he nuzzled his face into the soft skin, knowing that they created life and it was growing inside Hermione. Charlie took his time, worshiping each part of her body, taking her over the edge into a new form of ecstasy. Slow and steady, just like their relationship.

Once they came down from their respective highs, Charlie pulled Hermione to cuddle up to his chest. "You know some things are going to have to change right?"

"Like what?"

"Well, no more drinking," Charlie started, rubbing his hand up and down her back. "And you can't be working yourself to exhaustion."

"I know. I am taking things easy for now," Hermione agreed. "But please don't stop me from working, I know I work around chemicals and dangerous ingredients. I talked to the healer and he said that as long as I didn't have prolonged exposure to these potions, and I have also owl'ed my aunt and uncle, who took over for my parents about picking up a spare lead-lined apron that they use for x-rays. It keeps the body safe."

"Well can be make a consession, that you stop working when you reach eight months? You will be pretty big by then and it would be dangerous to keep being around the cauldrons."

"Agreed, but people who need healing, they can be able to floo the house and get treatment if it's not too severe. Any sever cases will have to go to the local hospital."

"I'm all for that. You take breaks when you need them, don't work too much because you don't think the other people there can't handle it; I know how you are, you know you are the best and think that others do things the wrong way."

"I will try, I promise," Hermione said, looking up at her husband. They were going to be parents, and raise a child near a dragon reserve. It was going to be a crazy new adventure and Hermione was totally ready to go down this road with Charlie.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13: Sirius' and Hestia's good news**

It was rather early in the morning when the floo call came through. Ron was very loud and insistent when he shouted through their home. "Hermione! Charlie! Stop early morning shagging and get yours arses to the fire!"

Charlie rolled off of his now irritated wife and grabbed a pair of boxers. "I'm going to kill him," he grumbled.

"Not if I kill him first," Hermione muttered, reaching for her robe on the post of the bed. Once the robe was wrapped around her body, she pushed past Charlie, intent on giving Ron and piece of her mind when he saw her and was chuckling.

"Not interrupting anything I hope?" Ron ribbed.

"Tell me right now why I don't come through the fire and kill you?" she said, sitting down in front of the fire place.

"Because then Sirius and Hestia wouldn't have a god mother for their child," Ron teased.

"Why are you calling at this early hour?" Charlie asked, joining his wife, but picking her up and putting her in his lap. "And you were interrupting something, you little snot."

"Well Sirius and Hestia are at St. Mungo's. They left about twenty minutes ago and left me in charge of calling people to let them know; and specifically you because Sirius wants you both there."

"They're having the baby?" Hermione asked, all irritation gone.

"Yes, now get dressed and down to St. Mungo's, now; by the way those two were talking about it, it's going to be happening sooner rather than later." And with that, Ron pulled his head back from the flames. Hermione quickly jumped up, hitting a not so pleasant area of her husband's body in the process. She ran back to him, and gave him a quick kiss in apology. She raced off to their bedroom and got dressed in a simple jeans and t-shirt outfit, one of Charlie's in fact that she had shrunk. Charlie came walking in as soon as she had finished and was running into the bathroom do try to do something with her hair. Charlie just shook his head and chuckled at his wife. She was so cute when she was excited about something.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

It wasn't but fifteen minutes later, after Charlie made his pregnant wife eat something, that they were floo'ing to the hospital. When they reached the front desk, Hermione was out of breath from running from the floo. "Black? Having… baby?"

"Yeah, room 626," the receptionist said, in a bored tone. Hermione grabbed Charlie's hand and they ran off to the lifts. They couldn't reach the sixth floor fast enough, and Charlie was laughing at her impatience. The doors pinged and opened and she was on the move yet again. Hermione nearly past the door that she needed to find. When she reached the bed, she carefully made her way to Hestia to see how she was doing. Her next stop was to hug Sirius very tightly.

"I'm going to be a dad," he said into her hair. "I can't believe it. I never thought I would get to have a child."

"You are going to be a wonderful father," Hermione placated. Charlie then walked into the room and gave Sirius one hand a quick shake and made his way to Hestia.

"You look beautiful my dear," he said charmingly.

"I sure hope you're this calm when Hermione's in my place," she said, accepting the kiss to her cheek.

"Oh I will be a nervous wreck," he chuckled in reply. "How are you feeling?"

"Pretty nervous honestly," she replied. "It won't be long now according to the healers, little under an hour, with theses contractions. They aren't as bad as I have heard, but they are getting closer and closer together."

"Your little bundle of joy will be here soon enough," Charlie said.

"Have you thought of names yet?" Hermione piped up from her corner with Sirius.

"We were going to wait to see what they look like," Sirius said, looking at Hestia for confirmation.

"Yeah, we have a few for each, but we need to see them in order to see what is going to work."

"Sounds like a good idea."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

A little over an hour later, Hestia and Sirius became parents, to a little baby girl. When Sirius held her for the first time, he had tears coming down his face as he announced the name. "Jessica Lucinda Black."

Hermione and Charlie were named Godparents to this little girl, who, so far, looked like a perfect amalgamation of her parents. She would grow up to be a dark haired girl with big brown eyes. Charlie and Hermione let their friends and family come in the room and congratulate the new arrival two at a time before going back in after everyone was done.

"Hermione, I know we talked about it, but will you both be her Godparents?" Sirius asked, handing his daughter to Hermione to hold.

"Oh of course," Hermione said, choking back tears.

"We would be honored Sirius," Charlie said, totally in awe of this little baby girl.

"Is this making you feel anxious?" he asked his 'daughter'.

"Yeah, I have about six months to go, and I haven't even read any books about this," Hermione said, stroking the newborn's cheek.

"You won't be ready until you see the baby for the first time," Hestia said tiredly from the bed. Hermione nodded her head eyes still fixed on the baby.

"I know mum will be cooking and storing several nights' worth of meals in your kitchen for when you get home, but she is having a feast tonight, and it's starting soon," Charlie announced.

"That's really sweet of her," Hestia said, accepting her baby back from Hermione.

"We will be back tomorrow before you're released," Hermione said. "I'm off work tomorrow, and will help you get home and everything."

"I don't have to go in until late, so I will help with some of the bigger gifts that you seem to have accumulated," Charlie said.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

"Are you okay, love?" Charlie asked once they reached the Burrow, pulling her down the hallway and away from prying ears.

"Yeah, just getting more nervous and anxious," she said, wrapping her arms around his middle.

"We will be fine, don't you worry," Charlie said, kissing her on the forehead gently.

"We don't know that," Hermione said, a panic tone in her voice. "What if I won't be a good mother, I forget to feed them, or leave them somewhere and forget where I've left them…."

Charlie silenced her mini-freakout with a kiss to her lips. He massaged his lips against hers, calming her and enticing her at the same time. Their kiss deepened briefly before Charlie backed off. "You are going to be fine, love. We are going to be fine. I don't want you to worry about anything until there is something we actually need to worry about."

"Okay," she murmured.

"We will be getting health checks along the way, and you already have the precautions at work put in place," Charlie said, pulling his wife closer to his chest, cradling her to his body. "You won't forget to feed them, because you always have a schedule written up, and you won't forget them somewhere because you are always in control of the situation, and there are no more ifs, ands, or buts about it."

"Alright," Hermione agreed.

"Now let's go join the festivities," Charlie said. Hermione smiled up at her husband and allowed him to lead her to the kitchen. They looked around the kitchen and saw that there were grim looks on Harry and Ginny's faces. Hermione immediately went over to them and pulled them into the less crowded living room.

"Are you two alright?" she asked.

"Yeah, we will be fine," Harry said, holding his wife's hands in his.

"It's just been four months of trying for a child and nothing is working," Ginny said in frustration.

"These things take time," Hermione tried to sooth her best girl friend.

"Well you got pregnant on your honeymoon," Ginny said bitterly.

"Well your brother has mutant sperm," Hermione said dryly. This made Ginny giggle a little. "And come on, you mean to tell me that you aren't enjoying all this trying?"

"Well I certainly am," Harry said, a cheeky smile on his face.

"Don't go telling your brother-in-laws that," Hermione warned.

"Tell us what?" the twins questioned in unison. They had curious looks on their faces.

"Nothing," Harry said quickly.

"Good," they replied, smiling smugly.

"Like I said, it takes time," Hermione said to Ginny again, and this time the girl smiled and nodded.


	14. Chapter 14

**Trouble at the Reserve**

Amid the celebrations of the newest addition to the Black family, Fred and George Weasley announced that both of their wives were pregnant, and due on the same day; what a coincidence. But after the party died down, it was back to real life and back to the reserve for Hermione and Charlie. The next two months brought nothing but boredom. Hermione had just hit five months along when something, or someone decided to happen upon her.

There was yet another shipment of dragons, but this time they were more ill-tempered than the last batch. Normally they didn't get this many shipments this close together, it would take a full year before dragons were trained anyway. But now it was far more dangerous to be near these dragons. One trainer after another was coming with injuries here and there all day, but it was the very end of the day when the final patient came into the ward. Charlie brought in the trainer, his name was Beau. Beau was a fairly new trainer, just out of the training period, but quite cocky. He had teeth marks up his left arm and a burn down that same side of his torso. Hermione doffed her robes to give her more mobility to work. Charlie plunked the man down on the table and went to get checked out for a minor burn with her other healer. Beau was not a happy camper, swearing furiously as Hermione was healing the cuts on his arms and disinfecting as she went. The gashes were slow to close and quite painful because the dragon's teeth has taken some of the extra flesh along with it.

"Alright, stop being a big baby," Hermione grumbled as he kept moving his arm away and the spells were going places that they shouldn't.

"Well you're hurting me bitch!" he growled.

"It wouldn't hurt as much if you weren't fighting me then it would go quicker and you would be out of pain sooner," Hermione said, yanking his arm back. She managed to close up the majority of the cuts on his arm that she could see through the blood and she went to go get the burn salve so she could get that on as quickly as possible. When she turned back to him, he had his wand drawn. Hermione dropped the jar of salve and drew her wand quicker than she could blink. "Put the wand down," she said softly.

"You need to work faster!" he yelled, throwing a spell her way. Hermione blocked it easily.

"Shut the hell up and let me help you!" she growled back, gripping her wand tighter. He threw another spell at her and she parried it away. "I said STOP!" Hermione was a pissed off pregnant witch. She unleashed some magic and it knocked him on his ass. Hermione turned quickly to get the dropped jar and he threw one more spell her way, and the tent glowed with blue light just as Charlie was coming out of the other treatment room. He saw the man cast at his wife's back and flew into a rage.

Charlie jumped on the young man and proceeded to beat the ever loving shit out of him. Fists were flying and Charlie couldn't even care less that he was practically killing this person. His friend Tom ran in when he heard the commotion and grabbed Charlie around the middle and yanked him off. Two other trainers took over with the punishment of Beau.

"Check on Hermione," Tom insisted to Charlie, squeezing him tightly, not letting him rejoin the action next to them. When Charlie heard his wife's name, he immediately calmed down, then began fighting to be released again, this time for a different reason. He was trying to get to his fallen wife. Tom let him go and just watched him for now. Charlie scampered over to Hermione's side. She was lying on the floor like a limp ragdoll, her bell protruding slightly.

"Hermione?" Charlie said softly, caressing the hair from her face. He gently rolled her over and took her into his arms. With one arm around her back he cradled her head. "Baby? Open your eyes!"

Hermione didn't stir.

Charlie stood up with his wife and turned to the other healers in the room. "Where's the emergency portkey?"

One of the ladies handed him a popsicle stick and it began to glow.

"Don't let him free," Charlie warned Tom about Beau. "Keep him in the cell until I get back."

Tom nodded. Charlie was now whirling away with Hermione in his arms protectively. He landed surely in the waiting room at St. Mungo's. Hurrying to the front desk he spoke frantically, "My wife, she's pregnant and was attacked by a spell. I don't know what it actually was."

"Go right down the hall and you will see a sign for spell damage, tell the Healer down there and they will get to her right away," the receptionist said, actually showing some concern for a patient.

Charlie did as he was told and raced down the hall to the spell damage ward and talked to the healer in charge. He sent them to the room immediately to his left. Charlie set her down on the bed and brushed the hair from her face. The healer came in with a scribe in tow and began waving his wand.

"We need to see what kind of damage was done," the healer explained. "I see she's expecting? How far along is she?"

"Five months today actually," Charlie croaked out, staring at his wife's still body.

"Well, congratulations, and the baby seems to be fine," he said, a blue light from the tip of his wand showed. "And it's a boy."

"A boy?"

"Yes, now, can you describe the situation?"

"Well, I work at a dragon reserve in Romania. My wife, Hermione, is the healer in charge there. We got a rough shipment in and a few people got it worse than others. The worst one, I carried him in and went to get treated myself. When I heard a scuffle, he was yelling and she was yelling right back. Then I heard her scream and a blue light filled the tent. Needless to say I beat the shite… pardon my French… out of him. Then I brought her straight here."

"Blue light you say?"

"Yeah."

"Alright, that kind of spell does a bit of nerve damage," the healer said, ceasing his wand movement. She got hit in the back from the look of things and it didn't actually penetrate her spinal column; she's lucky."

"What does this mean?"

"She will need to stay here for a little while, get some physical therapy and occupational therapy, make sure everything is in working order. Then she will be given some exercises to be done at home."

"How long are we talking?" Charlie asked.

"Depending on the damage, two weeks to three months," the healer replied honestly. "We won't know how extensive the damage is until she's woken up, and that has to happen on its own."

"How long do you think that could be?"

"A few hours to a few days," he replied. Charlie groaned, and clasped Hermione's hand in his.

"I need to write to the reserve, let them know," Charlie said. "Do you have an owl I can borrow, actually, three?"

"Of course," the healer said, they will be brought to you immediately. The scribe gave him quill, ink, and parchment. Charlie sat there and wrote to the reserve first, since it would take the longest to get there. He said he would be back as soon as Hermione woke up and got settled in. He wrote to Sirius next, letting him know what happened to his 'daughter', and he wrote his mother as well. After sending the letters off, he settled in his chair and stared at his wife. She was still so beautiful; she looked like she was sleeping.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

It wasn't a few hours later when the letters arrived and Sirius and Molly rushed to the hospital. Once they were in the room, Sirius hugged Charlie before settling down on the opposite side of the bed, holding Hermione's other hand. Molly hugged her boy tightly, whispering softly in his ear that everything was going to be okay. Charlie broke down in his mother's arms. The first time he had felt any emotion other than anger since the whole incident happened. He explained the situation to his mom and Sirius as best he could before breaking down again. Molly led her son to the small couch on the side of the room and sat down with him.

"What did the healer say?" Sirius croaked. He was now stroking Hermione's hand gently.

"She could wake up from any time to a few days, but she still has to stay here for two weeks to three months for therapy. He said the spell may have caused some nerve damage."

"And the man responsible?"

"That _child_ is locked up at the reserve until I can go back and deal with him. I was put in charge while the director was on vacation," Charlie said angrily. "But I'm not going back there until Hermione wakes up though. I will have tried to calm down by then, don't worry."

"Are you sure it's best that you deal with him?" Molly questioned warily, not wanting to set her son off.

"Yes, I am the authority on the reserve, and the others won't let him off lightly either; they all love Hermione there, and he is a cocky son of a bitch."

Molly didn't even scold him for his language. She was furious at the person responsible for putting Hermione in this place, but she could do no more about it than support her son and his wife during this hard time.


	15. Chapter 15

**I know this is probably incredible that I'm getting this many updates out in such a short amount of time, but I have only two more chapters and an epilogue. I will try my best to get this story done by the end of the week = )  
**

**The Long Road to Recovery**

Early the next morning, Hermione stirred from her unconscious state. She let out a small groan that caused Charlie to stir as well. He looked up at his wife from his spot by her hips and a smile crossed his face. "Mia, you're awake!" he whispered excitedly. She groaned again and tried to move, but found herself unable to move very much.

"What happened?"

"You got hit by a spell," Charlie explained, moving to sit by her side and hold her hand. "Your back was turned and Beau managed to sneak a spell in, the bastard."

"Language," she murmured. Charlie chuckled at his wife's insistence that he not swear around their unborn child, since they could hear things inside the womb.

"I'm going to go get the healer, you stay here and try not to move; he can explain better what's going to happen," Charlie explained before leaving her for a few moments. Hermione stared up at the ceiling, wondering how she could have let her guard down long enough for that prick to get a spell in. While she was silently berating herself, the Healer came in and explained the situation to her. She nodded her head appropriately.

"Today is going to be about testing your limits, and you might get frustrated; but that's normal at this stage of your recovery. I must remind you that you must try to keep calm for the baby's sake, it has also suffered trauma," the healer said before going off to get the specialist.

"We are having a son, Hermione," Charlie said, resting a hand on her stomach. "He told me last night while he was checking everything."

"A boy?"

"Yeah."

"That's wonderful," Hermione said, beaming up at her husband.

"Also, my mum and Sirius were by last night to check on you," Charlie said. "I owl'd them to let them know and have them tell the rest of the family. You will probably be getting more visitors tomorrow."

"That's fine, I probably won't be up for much after this testing," Hermione sighed. "I'm so sorry."

"Why are you sorry? Its Beau that should be sorry," Charlie placated.

"I turned my back!" Hermione argued.

"You were probably frustrated," he said, rubbing her hand. "I heard quite a bit of shouting and Lacy wouldn't let me go see what was going on until I had all my burns treated."

"You were hurt?"

"Not much, but since you were the more experienced, you got the more severe case," he replied. "Don't worry about a thing, he will be dealt with when I get back."

"Don't kill him," Hermione warned.

"I won't, I promise, that's a whole bunch of paperwork that I don't want to deal with right now," Charlie joked, and Hermione actually cracked a smile.

"I want to see him when I'm fully healed," Hermione demanded. "I want to yell and berate him like the pissed off mother I am."

"I'll be there to supervise," Charlie warned, knowing that his wife could do some serious damage if she was angry enough.

The healer walked into the room with a specialist, who turned out to be one of their new people, but had a personal connection with Hermione. "Neville?"

"Hello Mia," Neville replied, walking over to kiss her cheek.

"What's going on?"

"Well, I'm the newest in this wing, but I wanted to use my first case with you," Neville said. "If that's alright? I will have someone supervising my work, but we will primarily be working one on one, getting your fine motor function and any other physical impairments back on track."

"I'm fine with that," Hermione said, looking up at Charlie for a secondary approval. He nodded his head slightly, so Neville went on.

"Today, we are going to be testing the limits of what your body can still do; and some of these tests may seem silly, but they just test all the variability's of your skills."

"Sounds alright to me," Hermione said. "Begin your torture, sir."

Neville saluted her. "It would be my pleasure," he joked.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

Neville surely put her through her paces that day. He tested nearly every aspect of her body, seeing what was still functioning properly, and to full capacity. It was determined that she had trouble lifting things over ten pounds, rotating fully at the waist, keeping her hand open for longer than five seconds, and her legs were shaking if held out for more than five seconds. As for fine motor function, she still had trouble holding a quill and her wand for some spell movements. She had some balance issues while walking around as well. All things that could be remedied rather easily. Neville gave them an estimate that she would be in the hospital for about a month.

Charlie went back to the reserve for the afternoon that Hermione had her first therapy session to straighten things out. "Tom!" Charlie called out. The trainer in question came out of Charlie's office and greeted him with a handshake.

"How is she?"

"She's got to stay in hospital for a month, getting physical therapy," Charlie said, sighing and following his friend into the office. "The spell caused nerve damage."

"And the baby?"

"He's going to be fine," Charlie said, collapsing into his chair.

"A boy?"

"Yeah," he grinned slightly.

"That's a good thing then," Tom said, trying to cheer him up.

"Yeah, though I wouldn't have minded if it was a girl," Charlie said.

"She would have you wrapped around her tiny little fingers," Tom teased.

"Just like her mum," he chuckled. "But we know the healer on her case, a friend from school. She is determined to get out of there sooner than a month."

"Of course she is," Tom said ruefully. "Never did anything halfassed she did. She want to have a good yell at him when she comes back?"

"Yeah, I told her that I'd supervise," Charlie said. "I know she just wants to yell, but she's pregnant, and I don't want her really hurting him; it's terrible all the paperwork when someone gets real hurt"

"True that," Tom replied. "So what's going on with you?"

"I came back to say that I'm taking a month's leave, and you're in charge, sorry," Charlie said apologetically. If you were still an active trainer, being in charge was the last thing that people wanted, they wanted to be in the field, not doing paperwork all day. "And I came to talk with the little whelp."

"Well he's still in the trial cell," Tom said. "You remember where that is?"

"Yeah, I remember," Charlie said. He needed to talk to this kid and figure out what made him freak out that much to curse his wife. Charlie got up from his chair and made his way across the reserve to the little hut in the middle of nowhere. You couldn't apparated to it, because of the anti-apparition wards around the little hut (for the people inside it). When he got there, he opened the door and quickly shut it behind him. With a quick lighting spell, Charlie put his wand in the little niche in the wall, illuminating the small room. Beau was cast in shadow, and he looked rather raggety after a night in here.

"Charlie," he croaked, looking up at the red headed man.

"No, you don't get to speak yet," Charlie said firmly, leaving no room for argument. Beau fell silent. "You attacked my wife. My wife who was trying to save your sorry arse. My wife who is pregnant. Do you realize what you have done?"

"I'm sorry," Beau said.

"Sorry isn't good enough this time," Charlie growled. "I have excused your behavior for far too long. You are young, and I granted you leniency for this, but when you attack someone, especially when their back is turned, it not tolerated here. You are hereby suspended for three months, and when or if you come back, you are on probation for a year, until you can go a whole year without incident."

"I was in so much pain," Beau said.

"And I have been in your situation before," Charlie said. "You have a lot yet to learn. When my wife gets out of the hospital she is going to want to have a word with you, so I suggest you stay able to be found. I wouldn't fancy a pregnant witch, especially Hermione, tracking me down."

Beau hung his head in shame as Charlie left the little hut. Charlie was rather proud of the fact that he didn't hit the boy. He was sure that Hermione would be proud of him too. He walked the long way back to the office to report to Tom what he had dealt out to the kid and Tom agreed with the terms. They would be leaving a note for the boss when he got back from his leave. Checking over some paperwork from the previous day Charlie finished up any business he still had at the reserve before floo'ing back to the hospital. Hermione was just finishing up with her therapy for the day. She was sweating slightly and squeezing a ball in her hand. It lasted for a good ten seconds before she dropped it.

"Good Hermione," Neville praised, making a note in her file. "If you keep this up, you might be out of here sooner than we planned."

"Good, I don't like being in hospitals," Hermione grumbled. "Not that you aren't a joy to be around, when you're not working me like a slave."

"I do it with love, my dear," Neville said patting the back of her hand. Charlie looked at their interaction with a curious eye. He knew his wife wouldn't cheat on him, but he was interested in how their relationship had developed.

"Charlie," Hermione greeted with a smile.

"Hello, love," he replied, moving to kiss her gently on the lips. "Neville."

"Charlie," Neville responded, shaking his hand. "Hermione, I'll see you tomorrow, same time."

"Sounds good Nev," Hermione said. Once Neville left the room, Hermione reached up and begged Charlie with her eyes to kiss her. He complied with a smile.

"You're in a better mood," he chuckled after breaking their kiss.

"Yeah, well you heard Neville, I might get to leave here early," Hermione said. "How did things go today?"

"You will be proud of me, I didn't hit him in any way," Charlie said, boasting slightly. "He is suspended for three months and on probation for a year."

"That's good, I'm glad you didn't hurt him," Hermione said, squeezing his hand.

"And I told Tom, who is in charge now, that I will be here as long as you are in the hospital."

"You don't have to do that," Hermione insisted.

"You are my wife and I want to be by your side," Charlie insisted. "Now tell me how things went today."

Hermione gave Charlie a rundown of how things went today in therapy, getting more strength back in her back as well has her hand. She told Charlie about the special back massage process she had to go through every day to try to enervate her muscles. Charlie then questioned her relationship with Neville, not in a jealous way, but curiously, as he didn't know that they were close. She explained that in their later years at Hogwarts, they were good friends, because Hermione tutored Neville in potions and sometimes transfiguration, and they collaborated on potions research because of his background in plants. They were like brother and sister by the end of their seventh year at Hogwarts. Charlie inwardly let out a sigh of relief. This wasn't a paramour that he had stolen her away from.


	16. Chapter 16

**Early Surprise**

It took Hermione three weeks of pure determination to finally leave St. Mungo's with Neville's stamp of approval, as well as the approval of his supervisor. Neville was granted his full therapist status after Hermione was discharged and Hermione and Charlie took him out to celebrate. Over the past three weeks, Hermione had gotten to know Neville a little better. He was married, to Hannah Abbott, his Hogwarts' sweetheart. They just found out they were expecting a few days ago and Neville was ecstatic. He made Hermione get up and do a victory dance with him, which they passed off as therapy when another healer came into the room. But once they were done their dinner, Charlie apparated them back to their home in Romania. Hermione was to take the next week off from work to continue with her exercises but was cleared to go back after that. Charlie relieved Tom from his duties for a whole week before their boss came back.

Once the boss was informed of the incident transpired, he flew into a rage. Beau was severely reprimanded and got ripped a new one by Hermione when he was told to come by the house by Charlie. Needless to say, he was transferred out to the Irish reserve and never to be heard from again. The boss made sure that Hermione was alright after everything and she assured him that no one could mess with her anymore, she was still royally pissed and she had a red-headed husband; that solved all her problems.

The next two months passed with little to no incident. Charlie was working with the dragons that had come in giving everyone trouble. They had managed to settle them down a bit by the time Charlie had come back, so he had some catching up to do. Hermione was back to stocking the potions room and doing her basic healings. Thankfully there hadn't been any incidents like Beau, but there have been a fair few moderate to serious injuries. Hermione was brewing double time, and not really healing as much as she wanted, but since she was the potions mistress here, she needed to get things overstocked when she went into labor and was on maternity leave for however long she needed to be. She was planning on four months or so, but she could easily work from home on the potions job and part time with the law department, she could give up healing for some time; but she would decide that when the time came. She was still wary of Charlie, he kept insisting that she didn't even need to work, since he had far too much money than he knew what to do with currently.

Hermione's eighth month came and she was based at home for a while. She was still brewing in their personal lab and having her staff come pick it up at scheduled intervals. She was putting the finishing touches on the nursery, painting everything and getting the room organized to her liking when she felt some pain shoot down her back. She had only been home on maternity leave for a week. This wasn't supposed to be happening; she wasn't supposed to go into labor for another three weeks. Surely something could be wrong with the baby; of course her healing training told her otherwise, but her mother instinct took over.

Hermione was busy thinking things through until she felt the next pain and a sudden gush of water. She looked down and saw a small puddle at her feet; her water had just broken.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

A quick floo call to the main healing room, she asked them to get Charlie. With congratulations from her co-workers, she pulled her head from the fire. Hermione went about slowly, grabbing onto furniture when a contraction came ripping through, but managed to get her hospital bag, and everything necessary they would need for the birth. Charlie came floo'ing in twenty minutes later. "What happened?"

"My water broke, we should get to St. Mungo's," Hermione explained calmly through her contraction.

"It's time?" Charlie exclaimed. "What are we waiting for?"

He grabbed her arm and lead her out the back door. He marched them to the apparition line and took them to St. Mungo's. The healer staff was quite shocked to see Hermione in this early. They had things setup for three weeks from now. But Neville was actually the first one to greet them, since he was passing through the main lobby.

"Mia?" Neville questioned as she was being supported by Charlie through her contraction.

"Yeah, labor, now, room, please," Hermione managed to pant out. Neville nodded and helped Charlie get her into the elevator at the end of the lobby. They had to go up to the fourth floor to get to the maternity ward. They were taken right into the third room on the left. Once Hermione was settled in the bed, Charlie asked Neville to stay with her while he filled out the paperwork and went to floo their families; letting them know what's going on.

"Are you alright?" Neville questioned.

"I have something the size of bowling ball trying to work itself out of my body, do you think I'm alright?" she asked, breathing heavily through her next contraction.

"I know, stupid question. But is there anything I can get you? Some ice chips maybe?" Neville asked.

"Yeah, that would be nice, and possibly my healer if you can find him," she replied, scooting herself up the bed, so she was at least half reclined.

Neville got up and left the room for a brief moment, leaving Hermione to her thoughts and how she was ever going to be ready for a child at the end of this. He returned shortly followed by her healer and a large cup full of ice chips.

"Hermione, how are you?" Healer Davis asked.

"Well I've having contractions and about an hour ago my water broke," she said.

"How far apart are your contractions?"

"Well, around 10 minutes, and for about 30 seconds at a time," she replied.

"Alright, let's see where things are down under," Healer Davis announced. Neville took a seat by Hermione's head, not wanting to see anything below her waist, no matter how pretty she was. The doctor did a quick pelvic exam to see how she was progressing. "Good," he said. "Two centimeters dilated."

"Is that good?" Hermione asked.

"Yes, for a first time pregnancy, this is good progress. If you keep things up, within six hours or so you could be holding your newborn baby," he said, jotting something on the chart and leaving once again.

"That's good huh?" Neville asked. "Six hours?"

"Yeah, I was expecting something much, much longer," Hermione admitted.

"I've heard that first time mothers take twelve hours or longer," Neville agreed. With that, Charlie came back into the room, his mother in tow.

"Hermione dear, how are you?" Molly asked.

"I'm two centimeters, he says this could be fairly quick, probably in another six hours," she explained. Charlie was making his way to her side; he shook Neville's hand and thanked him for staying with her while he got things done. He stroked her hair out of her face and his mother just looked at them, seeing the love that these two shared. Molly couldn't wait, it was her second grandchild, and a boy at that. She had three and a half month old Victoire already, and she was a beautiful little girl, but she wanted all kinds of grandkids to spoil.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

It was a few short hours later and Hermione was ten centimeters and getting ready to push. The baby was in the correct position and ready to make its way into the world. Hermione was growling through her contractions, pushing with all her might. Charlie was sitting behind her, supporting her legs and helping her push. Molly and the rest of their families were waiting just down the hall for Charlie to bring out their little bundle of joy. A half an hour of hard labor and Mark Charles Weasley made his way into the world, screaming at the top of his lungs. Hermione and Charlie were proud parents of a baby boy, 8 lbs, 6 ozs, 22 inches long. Hermione was the first to hold their boy, and Charlie cut the cord. Hermione and Charlie got time together alone with their baby before their family came in to coo over the new little one.

Molly was the first person to hold the baby, and she had tears streaming down her face the whole time. Sirius was next, holding his 'grandson' and then introducing his five month old daughter Jessica. The scene was so cute that Hermione wished she had a camera at that moment. Harry and Ginny were the next to hold the new baby, and it was announced that they would be the godparents. Harry had tears coming down his face, and went over to hug his best friend.

Once everyone had their visit, Charlie went out to talk to his mother, Hermione had baby Mark sleeping on her chest and only Harry and Ron in the room with her. "Hey," Hermione whispered. Each of the boys sat on opposite sides of the bed.

"You have a baby," Ron said, in awe of the new baby.

"I know, who would have thought two years ago that I would be having a baby, and with Charlie at that."

"Yeah, we all weren't expecting to get married so soon in life, but I think it's something good," Harry said wisely.

"Well, it will be happening to you soon enough," Hermione warned the boys. "But it's the next greatest adventure."


	17. Chapter 17

**Epilogue**

**A/N: So I decided to just make the one chapter then the epilogue, sorry. **

It's been five years since the marriage law had been instituted. And just about five years since the members of the Order had been married. There were quite a few members added since then. Molly actually threw a party to celebrate the mass five year annivarsaries of those who had married because of the law. It was huge and lasting practically all night long. Even those who had just recently had children were there, leaving their sleeping children in a room upstairs once their fell asleep. You could see the various couples sitting around the living room of the Burrow. Bill and Fleur had taken up the loveseat and each had a child in their lap. Bill had little Victoire Marie and Jacque Davis was on Fleur's lap, sucking happily on his thumb. Percy and Penelope were sitting on the floor by the fire with the two and a half year old triplets. They were highly surprised when they had the girls, especially when Percy wasn't expecting to have more than one child; but they ended up with Rose Ann, Ivy Lynn, and Iris Denise. Percy and Penelope were happy with their little group and really had no plans to increase their numbers, but if it were to happen, they wouldn't be against it.

The twins were another story entirely. George and Alicia had only one child, and had a difficult time conceiving her. It was the two year mark and they were going for their physical. Only then did they catch that she was a few months pregnant. It was a high risk pregnancy, with Alicia or bed rest for the last four months; which she absolutely hated. George, the ever helpful husband, gave her something to do while she was confined to their enormous bed; the accounting books for the shop. Fred on the other hand was a father to one girl, Lindsay, but Angelina was pregnant again, this time with a boy.

Sirius and Hestia were standing in the doorway their children playing at their feet. Jessica Lucinda was running back and forth around her father's legs while Jordan Casey was tugging insistently on her mother's dress, wanting to be picked up. Ron and Lisa were chasing around their three year old, Robert Thomas, as he giddily ran from them, weaving in and out of various Weasley family members.

Remus and Tonks were there with their son, Teddy, and he was the oldest of the children, only a few months older than Jessica, just going to be turning five in three months. He was a metamorphmagus just like his mother, but with an affinity for rare meats; something he inherited from his father, but not his lycanthropy at all. And the honorary family members Oliver and Katie Wood were there with their two daughters, Perdita Colleen, and Bridgette Luna.

Finally, off in a corner of the room, were Charlie and Hermione. She just laid their youngest child in a room upstairs for sleep, Quinn Molly, while their oldest two Mark Charles and Alexander Arthur were off playing on the rug with their cousins.

Overall, it was a good thing that this marriage law came out; Charlie and Hermione never would have fallen in love and had three beautiful children. Just the other day they got a letter in the mail from the ministry announcing that they would be elegible for divorce in a mere three months, but they laughed at it and burned the letter. They wouldn't be getting divorced any time soon; and neither would any other couple attending this party. They had all fell in love and decided to stay together, and not only for the sake of their children.


End file.
